Welcome back to my 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown!  We're into the top three.  Again, as I've been reiterating all month long (imagine I'm saying this next bit super-fast like John Moschitta in a Micro Machines commercial), in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Ghostbusters franchise, not to mention my love of 80s animation, I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  These animation cels are culled from my personal collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve. Whew…

I was thinking that yesterday's flying toothy head monster would have been my top choice, and it probably would be if just on the frightening scale, but today's is the one I think might take away the award for the coolest.  I've mentioned on the this site before how much I like cephalopods, and even though I haven't really gotten into H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos all that much, I do love squid monsters…



When I first came across this guy it was after finding the cel that's below this one, the close up of a similar creature's face.   So I was so happy when I found this zoomed-out view of one of the other spawn of Cathulhu to give the whole thing a bit more definition.  Also, how cool is it that I found a cel where the squid monster is getting his arm blown off!  As you can see from the pencil under-drawing below the destruction is being caused by a proton pack blast…



In the original animated sequence this blast is obscured by another creature in the foreground, so it's kind of cool to finally get a clear view of this type of action in the cartoon.  Looking a bit closer at the pencil drawing you can see where the animator did a bit of a test with the image by using an exacto knife to cut out the lightning-like charges that surround the blacks from the proton packs.  My guess is that it was testing the backlit animation process, but I can't be sure…



As I mentioned, I first came into contact with this guy when I found this cel below.   At a distance the create looks a lot less alien, but when you do a super close-up it gets very weird looking indeed…



These are both from one of my most favorite episodes of the series, #41 "The Collect Call of Cathulhu." 



It was also written by one of my favorite animation writers, Michael Reaves, who has provided some of the best episodes in cartoon series such as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Dungeons and Dragons.  I love that for some reason or another he ended up adding the "a" to Cthulhu to differentiate it.  The episode is about as steeped in H.P. Lovecraft mythos as a 30 minute syndicated cartoon could possibly be with all sorts of refrences to the world of Cthulhu like the Necronomicon, Miskatonic University, and the ficticious city of Arkham, Massachusetts.  Just great stuff!



Once again, if you're enjoying these daily Real Ghostbusters monster posts, make sure to come back tomorrow for another installment and tell a friend about the 31 Days of Monsters.   If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

Well, it's day 13 of my 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown and I haven't been slowing down at all (which is nice considering how grueling this posting schedule was in years past.)  Like I've mentioned about two hundred thousand times so far, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Ghostbusters franchise, not to mention my love of 80s animation, I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  These animation cels are culled from my personal collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.

Today's monster is pretty straight forward, the Mutant Ghost Thug. Complete with tipped forward bowler, wife-beater shirt, and hitched up waders, this guy looks like he could knock your head off just as soon as look at you (with all four of his beady yellow eyes…)



In the episode, #104 "Partners in Slime", this guy is an example of the muscle utilized by a mob boss ghost named Poso.  What kind of struck me while watching it was how off the mark the series was starting to get around this time.  At this point ghosts are trying to take down the Ghostbusters left and right, and there's no rhyme or reason to the styling of the characters.  Why a mob boss?  Why not I guess, as it doesn't do anything for the story.  Also, when I first saw this cel, I expected the voice to come out of this guy would be really imposing.  In reality he ended up in the very whiney annoying kind of range.  I still love his design though...



He's just a pretty imposing yet simple figure.  The one aspect that I really dig is the pencil under-drawing, which is just rendered so well.  I'm not sure if this was a favorite of the animator, or if he was just in the zone that day, but the line work looks so fluid and perfect.  It doesn't feel rushed like so many of these drawings tend to (knowing the time crunch these studios were under to turn around 65 hand-drawn and painted episodes in under a year.)  This is one I'm going to consider framing when I get the time.



Also, for any of you Real Ghostbusters fans out there that haven't picked up any of the new DVDs, I've decided to give away a copy of the Volume 1 Steelbook edition of the show!



This 5-disc set contains the first 25 episodes of the series (including the 1st thirteen episode Saturday Morning run) as well as some fun special features.  So what do you have to do to win this beauty?  All you have to do is send me an e-mail (or click on the Creature From the Black Lagoon monster in the sidebar) and make sure to include the following:

-Please put "The Real Ghostbusters Contest" in the subject line.
-List your favorite monster/ghost/creature from the series.
-Include your name.

The deadline for entries is October 31st at Midnight eastern standard time.  I'll be drawing a winner at random from the e-mails, and will respond to the winner via e-mail on November 1st.  Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the 31 Days of Monsters countdown and the contest, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck)!

Once again, if you're enjoying these daily Real Ghostbusters monster posts, make sure to come back tomorrow for another installment and tell a friend about the 31 Days of Monsters.   If you'd like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

Welcome back to my 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown!  In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Ghostbusters franchise, not to mention my love of 80s animation, I'm counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  These animation cels are culled from my personal collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve. 

Today's monster is one of the rarest of the Bigfoot family, the Yeti (or abominable snowman if you prefer…)  Well that's what I thought anyway...



When I picked up this cel I hadn't seen the episode that this big guy came from.  I've since rectified that (my complete Real Ghostbusters set came in the mail on the 1st), and it turns out that this is in fact a Bigfoot, though from another dimension.  I still think he looks more like a Yeti, so I'm sticking to that.

I'm partial to the more simian designs of this east-Asian crypto-zoological marvel, though I do like the various carvings and masks I've seen (particularly the demonic looking ones that decorate the Expedition Everest ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom.)  Also, as I found out last Halloween, I love their one big on-screen monster movie success, the Peter Cushing Hammer classic the Abominable Snowman.



This monster debuted in episode #89, Camping it Up, where the gang goes on a camping trip only to stumble across some trouble.  This bigfoot somehow managed to find a portal from his alien home-world dimension to Earth via a section of limbo.  The gang has to weather through a night with this monster before helping him get back home.

As for this cel, it's one of my favorites because the image is both detailed and it takes up so much of the cel's surface area.   I've mentioned before that one of the pitfalls of collecting animation cels is that so many of what you find is visually kind of deficient.   Like the episode of the Simpson's where Bart wants the Itchy and Scratchy cel that just has an arm in frame, typically cels, even the ones with full character illustrations on them can seem kind of anticlimactic.  This stems from the design of traditional hand-drawn animation process and the multiple layers used to get both depth, and ease of movement.  It's always more stunning when you can find a piece that has a background sheet included, or in the case of the Yeti above, when it take up enough space that it basically looks like a scene right out of the cartoon.

Part of the detail that I love in this piece is the slobber coming off of the big guy's mouth and teeth.  It's another example of the process of visual design that is more or less unique to cel animation and painting in general, the concept of using color to outline and suggest shape.  You're starting to see this concept used widely in illustration these days, as artists are moving away from traditional pen and ink towards a more digital process or at least digitally coloring (replacing parts of the black line work with colored lines to either give the perception of depth of field or just as a stylistic choice.)  It's cool how with just some light blue paint used in outline and not filled in gives the shorthand impression of drool.



As far as the pencil under-drawing goes, I liked that the animator marked off the live are of the cel to concentrate on.  I also like the annotations on keeping the color separate on the tongue and gums, and the red ink needed for the veins in the eyes…

Make sure to come back tomorrow for another installment of the 31 Days of Monsters here at Branded in the 80s.  Also, you can head on over to Countdown to Halloween and check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

Alright, welcome to the first official post of the Halloween season here at Branded in the 80s.  This Countdown to Halloween is sort of becoming a tradition around the internet blogging community, and I'm happy to be participating for my fourth straight year.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I've decided on a theme this year in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Ghostbusters franchise.  Since I love cartoons, in particular the Real Ghostbusters, and I've been actively collecting 80s era animation cels for the past couple of years I thought it would be fun to showcase some of the monsters and ghosts that appeared in the series.  All this month I'll be counting down through 31 of my favorites culled from my personal collection of cels and animation under-drawings.

Again, as I mentioned previously, my wife and I sat down and did our best to order these monsters and ghosts from the least scary to the "crap-my-pants-creepy".  Today's entry is as cute as a 40 foot-tall button, and is "..something that could never possibly destroy us…"  Of course, I couldn't kick this countdown off without talking about one of the most iconic of all creatures that have popped up over the years of the franchise, the one and only Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!



Whether he's the physical form of Gozer the Gozerian (the Sumerian god of destruction) innocently chosen by Ray Stantz (Dan Akroyd) in the first film, or the eventual three-story tall baby-like sidekick of the animated GB crew, Stay Puft is as synonymous with the Ghostbusters as Slimer.  Stay Puft's concept origin comes from a mixture of advertising giants, the Michelin Man and the Pillsbury Doughboy.   The eventual design was so convincing to me that for years I assumed there was a brand of marshmallows called Stay Puft.

His appearances in the cartoon are a great example of how weirdly twisted spin-off adaptations can become.   In fact, the Real Ghostbusters is the center of a lot of weird adaptation issues.  Adding Slimer as somewhat of a pet/mascot, making Egon blonde, and turning Janine into a new wave punker are just a few examples of where the cartoon differs from the original flick.  What's interesting is that some of these changes worm their way into the second film.   I'm surprised we didn't see a return of the Marshmallow Man in GBII instead of the happy-tized-goo-animated Statue of Liberty.



In the cel above we have Stay Puft strolling along the streets of NY, using what's probably the corner of the GB firehouse headquarters as a turning point pivot.  There's also a little Slimer hovering over Puft's right shoulder, no doubt trying to convince him to help the Ghostbusters take down a big baddy.  I was kind of happy when I received this cel in the mail as it came with a pencil under-drawing from a slightly different segment.  It's also kind of neat to see how the animator illustrated where the shadows were to be applied to the eventual painted cel.



I'm not sure how many of you GB fans out there love or hate Slimer (I'm guessing it's pretty close to 50/50), but this tiny version (as well as his E.T.-esque appearance in the cel from last week) is pretty much all the Slimer we're going to get on this countdown.  There might be one more, but I'm really trying to concentrate on the other creatures, monsters, and ghosts from the series.

Make sure to come back tomorrow for another installment of the 31 Days of Monsters here at Branded in the 80s.  Also, you can head on over to Countdown to Halloween and check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year's Halloween blogging event…

I was going to hold this post until Friday, but I've got a short week at work, and since today feels a whole heck of a lot like Friday I thought why the hell not!  Have I ever mentioned that I really dig Halloween?  Oh yeah, I guess I have.  Well there are only seven days left until the season starts proper, and I have to say that I'm super jazzed about participating in another round of daily Halloween blogging, my fourth to date.   I've been prepping for this year's countdown to Halloween for the last four months, trying to come up with a theme that'll be fun on a lot of levels, and then it hit me sometime towards the end of this past June.   2009 has been a banner year for a particular 80s film and cartoon franchise, the one and only Ghostbusters.   It's the 25th anniversary of the original film, the 20th anniversary of the sequel, and this past year we saw the release of the complete animated series on DVD (which, by the by, is available on Amazon for only $114), as well as a new line of action figures released by Matty Collector that are pretty darn cool.  Also on a personal note, it was just about three years ago that I really began banging this website into a shape that was more along the lines of what I had in mind when I started this whole Branded in the 80s venture with the first official Peel Here sticker column that featured, you guessed it, the Ghostbusters.

So I was thinking back to last year's countdown and one of the things that I enjoyed sharing were a handful of animation cels from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.  So, for this year's countdown, in honor of the various anniversaries and releases, I thought it would be fun to dig back into my collection of animation cels and share some of my favorite monsters featured on the RGB cartoon.  One of the things that's really special about the cartoon was the vast variety of monsters, ghosts, and creeps that were in the episodes.  I've picked up a handful of these over the last year and each day in October I'll feature a new monster-centric cel (and any accompanying pencil under-drawings) from my collection.  My wife and I sat down and tried to order these from least scary to uncomfortably creepy, so it should be really fun come All Hallows Eve.  It's the 31 Days of Monsters!

To give a hint of what's to come, I thought I'd share an appropriately themed cel from the Real Ghostbusters…



I fell in love with this cel from the first moment I laid eyes on it because it combines two of my favorite things, 80s cartoons and Halloween.  When I share these on the site I like to try and use it as an opportunity to try and learn something about the process of animation by investigating contextural clues.  For instance, I thought it was interesting that the kid bringing up the rear, the mad scientist or whatever he is, has some weird repaints to him.  If you look closely (click on the image to zoom in), his brain/helmet was touched up on top of the cel.  Typically all of the painting is done on the back of the cel so that the photocopied black line art sits on top of all the layers of paint underneath.  The artist also had to touch up his eye, so my guess is that they painted his entire head and face the same flesh color and had to fix it.

Also, you'll notice that a lot of the black line work is super faded on the cel, turning to a light purple/brown in spots.   I've noticed this in a lot of the Real Ghostbusters cels, and it's one of those aspects to American companies sending their physical animation work overseas to save time and money.  Part of what makes it cheaper is the supplies anf materials used.   Honestly though, I don't know how much of this mattered at the time the animation was done, as it's stuff that could have faded over time, and these cels were certainly not meant to be scrutinized 22 years after they were produced.



I also really enjoyed the pencil under-drawing for this piece.  I love it when the animators put that extra bit of effort into the drawings with separate colors and such to illustrate the differences between overlapping characters and where shadows need to be placed in the final painted cel.   It's also kind of neat to pull back the curtain a bit and see any notes, even if it is in code (or sometimes other languages…)

So I hope everyone enjoys the theme, and I can't wait to start posting some proper monsters.   I'm going to update the site each night, 13 minutes after midnight, so check back often to see what's in store! 

Also, this is a perfect opportunity to point to a bunch more blogs that'll be participating in this year's Halloween Countdown.  As I've mentioned over the past month, I helped create a site that will hopefully act as a resource, corralling the sites that are joining in on the spooky fun.  You can find it at the Countdown to Halloween or you can click the handy banner below…

The Halloween season is pretty much in full swing.  It looks like the Netherworld Haunted Houses are just about to open their doors here in Atlanta (as well as accepting a new performer/puppeteer, congratulations Liz from Puppatoons!)  Most of the stores have their seasonal sections up, and the candy is flowing freely.  Also, it seems like every year I go through a similar phase during September.  Around the 1st of the month I start getting excited for the holiday, and then before I know it the entire month flies by in a haze.  The Countdown to Halloween night begins in just one week!

As I mentioned on Monday, I plan on announcing my theme on the 25th (this Friday), and then the festivities will properly begin just after midnight on October 1st.  We should also have the preliminary list of Countdown to Halloween bloggers up around the same time as well, so keep and eye out for that.  As for today, I thought I'd take a second and mention some of the interesting candy I've seen so far.  Honestly, besides the Bat and Candy Corn Dots, I really haven't found anything that's peaked my interest.  Most of the stuff is pretty standard fare, or repeats of stuff from the last couple years.  Aside from the various mini candy bars, Twizzlers, and multi-packs of Wonka branded confections (like the Giant Nerds), I've seen a lot more off-brand "gourmet" candy corn in all sorts of odd fruity flavors.   I've even seen some chocolate covered candy corn which sounds utterly decadent, and not in a good way.



One thing that popped out at me this year is another selection from Flix candy called Spooky Lip Pops.  These have been around for the last couple years but I've hesitated in picking them up because the track record for decent tasting Flix candy isn't all that good.  They seem to have a great handle on design, but that's about it.  Surprisingly, these creepy variations on the tried and true Ring Pop are pretty darn tasty.



I was glad too because I'd of hated myself if I ended up only liking the packaging…

Next up we have a staple of candy lovers everywhere, Pez.  Though it's nothing new or exciting, I did think it was interesting to see a bag of mini Pez refills on the bulk candy shelves.  Typically you only see some season dispensers in the novelty candy section, and most people probably wouldn't pop for a bunch of those to give out to trick-or-treaters.  Hell, most kids these days probably aren't enamored with Pez (relegating it to the much maligned Smarties category), but I've always loved it.  There are even mini packs of Cherry Pez, which I've never actually seen in stores (only heard about in movies like Stand By Me.)



Ever since the appearance of the Gummi Frog Dissection Kit at Target a couple years ago, it's become a yearly tradition to try and find the most ostentatious gummi product on candy shelves, and each year I've managed to find something bigger and crazier.  Last year Wal-Mart had a three-foot long gummi snake.  This year they're offering something doubly as crazy, a 48", two-headed monstrosity of a realistic gummi snake that even features two gummi rats as snake food!







Granted, I'm well aware that if you really want an insane gummi you can order one of the 5lb bears from Vat19 for $30, but for only $5 you can have more freaky gummi goodness than most people can handle.  The two-headed snake design is just crazy, but 48" of solid gummi candy is insane.  Luckily it even tastes good; though there's no way I'll be able to finish it.   It's just too much gummi for one man.

I had wanted to do a write up of this year's Wal-Mart Halloween section, but honestly it was pretty bland.   I did want to mention a weird trend in their candy pail offerings this year though.  Aside from the growing number of cartoon and movie branded candy buckets which are never very seasonal, I noticed that the large display of your standard plastic pumpkins have abandoned their tried and true orange hue.  All that were on the display were various neon variations in blue, purple, green and yellow.   Maybe the store hadn't fully deployed it's plastic pumpkin army, but if they have then it's a crying shame…

I talk a lot about this idea that I have about branding and how one can transmute the miasma of corporate products and logos that clogs our everyday existence into something useful.   All of this packaging, product placements, all these mascots, and these slogans are really just glyphs on a Rosetta stone.   It's an obscure dialect that contains a key to our memories.   If we're going to live in a manufactured world we have to learn to use it to our best advantage.

Similarly there's an odd rift that develops in the level of acceptance for this monster of commercialistic branding.  The further away we get from something, or if we have a window into which we can see the process of business entropy, the fonder our memories become.  As a for instance, who absolutely, 100% adores the corporate branding of McDonald's?  My guess is that most people would say "Not me."  Of the various demographics that would respond to the corporate branding and products offered, I'd be willing to bet a good percentage wouldn't hate McDonald's, would even admit that they eat there from time to time, but would also admit that they either don't like being sold food through the various cartoon characters or special promotions or they just plain wouldn't care.  At the same time though, I wonder who out there misses McRib sandwiches, Shamrock shakes, Officer Big Mac, the Professor or Captain Crook?  My guess is that most of the people who would recognize these things would probably admit to a fondness for these products and characters.  It's still the same type of low quality food and shilly mascots, but through the haze of memory they seem so much cooler.



So why am I bringing this up today in a post about some pre-Halloween excitement?  Well, I can't help but love Target around this time of year.  In fact, of all the Halloween traditions I've been adopting over the past decade, exploring the new spooky displays each year at the mega department store chain is fast becoming the start to my seasonal fun.  I know there's something a little unhealthy about getting so excited about new store displays, seasonal branding, corporate themes, and intellectual property partnerships, but I do.  

In fact, for once I can feel the future nostalgia building as all of this stuff, the characters, products, and signage starts seeping into my consciousness.   I can already see the day when the company will switch gears to follow a new, cheaper, pared down trend, and I can already feel myself missing the current one.  It's sort of like that cliché wish where one imagines utilizing time travel to go back and grab all the stuff that you miss from your childhood, except I'm already there.  The future me is sending back messages via brainwave wifi technologies, begging me to scoop up every piece of flat scan-able branding, or else…



Honestly, this isn't even a reaction to the undeniable awesomeness of this year's crop of Target Halloween goodies.  Some of it is pretty darn cool, but it's nothing all that special.   I just know I'll miss it when it's gone. 

So what exactly is it that I'll miss?   For one, Target finally hit the nail on the head in terms of finding the perfect pre-existing property to partner themselves with.   In years past they've featured unique branding like the Edgar and Ellen characters, which, though appropriately seasonal, were a little bit too spindly in design, and maybe a little too specific in character as they have a well-defined back story in the book series.  Last year the theme was Domo, which though neat in and of itself, was sort of a misfire in terms of Halloween branding.  Dressing Domo up like Frankenstein doesn't make him seasonal (that's a trick Disney has been attempting to much greater success with much more recognizable branding and characters for years.) 

This year though the partnership is with Skelanimals, a line of gothy, stuffed animals and clothing.  The basic premise revolves around a spooky design for what I assume are dead animals that makes each character look like a living x-ray where the skull and bones are visible.  It has the taste of Johnny and his gang of Cobra Kai during the Halloween dance scene in Karate Kid.  Personally I think this is a genius licensing agreement.  Not only are the Skelanimals cute and iconic, but they've got a head of steam developed via stores like Hot Topic where they've been featured prominently for a few years.  For the uninitiated they don't necessarily carry any anti-goth resentment baggage either.  They're at the perfect buoyant level between under and over exposed, and they just feel like something that Target would have come up with on their own.  Oh and my wife loves them to death.



Along with some neat exclusive glow-in-the dark plush variants, the Target Halloween section also features a million other Skelanimal branded products like pillows, key chains, hats, gloves, t-shirts, hoodies, candies (M&M exclusives and little tins of mints), as well as a trifecta of brand merging with the release of Target specific Skelanimal Bounty paper towels & napkins and Puffs tissues.  There's also a line of hard plastic figurines that could easily be mistaken for vinyl toys (because we did)…



One of the aspects of the Target Halloween section that I love is that they don't put all their eggs in one basket.  In addition to the main theme each year there are also mini ones directed at different demographics.   Where as Skelanimals are there to target the tween, teen and twenty-something's, there is also a more generic house branding that aims at the 30-something's and older crowd.  For the past few years this section has been devoted to El Día de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday.  This year this is being morphed into a more tattoo centric crowned skull and dragon theme…



Personally I think it's a little weird and trendy, but then I tend to stray away from most generic iconography when it doesn't have a particular story to tell.   I love skulls in general, but they're so simple and relatable (we've all got 'em.)  When you throw a crown on them, then it becomes pointlessly specific and enters into that realm of punk/biker clip-art that just makes my stomach queasy (like the ace of spaces, a set of snake eyes dice, barbed wire, an eyeball in a ball of flame, or a burlesque girl lounging in a martini glass.)  I just don’t get the appeal, especially considering that this subculture tends towards individuality, but these symbols just become a uniform.

Along with this theme Target is offering a new version of their over-sized skull candy dish greeter that I fell so hard for last year, though it's less Day of the Dead and more brushed metal…



The last demographic that Target has been attempting to capture is the more obvious youth market which is the bread and butter of Halloween.  In the last couple of years they've been doing this a little awkwardly with the Edgar and Ellen and Domo branded products, but there's always been an in-house branding that hasn't gotten a lot of attention featuring cute child-like versions of Frankenstein, Dracula, a witch and some creepy animals like cats and spiders.  Mainly these characters have ended up on the various paper products (plates, one-use table cloths, paper towels, etc.) and in my opinion they weren't pimped quite enough.  This year Target has introduced seven new characters, three of which are being heavily featured on a lot of different products ranging from candy to candy bowls.  There's a neat blue witch (that looks like a cross between Sally from A Nightmare Before Christmas and Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother), a little kid dressed up as a devil (that's reminiscent of Lock, also from A Nightmare Before Christmas), a ghost, a weird one-eyed bat, and three monsters.  These three monster characters are what really impressed me with the new spread in the store..



They've even gone so far as to name them, giving them a little bit more individual identities.   First up we've got Trex, the green Godzilla-esque lizard monster…



Next up is Schmorg, the furry, orange, one-eyed, Cousin It, chocoholic of the gang…



And last, Zen, the three-eyed, happy, blue gangly monster…



On the one hand I love the character designs, even on Zen who is straying from the typical Halloween color-scheme.  These are a weird cross between the work of comic writer/artist Evan Dorkin (of Milk & Cheese, Hectic Planet, and Dork fame) and the tone and feel of the monstrous characters on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.  In fact Dorkin has been doing a series of monster drawings on his blog that are so close to these Target characters that if they didn't hire him to design them, then the folks who did must have been fans and heavily influenced.  My favorite bit of branding with these monsters are the ceramic candy dishes…



Unfortunately, as far as the actual candy and goodies go, besides the new additions to the Dots family, there wasn't much to speak about this year at Target.  The Jones Soda offerings are the same from last year and I haven't found any interesting candy that wasn't available before.  I was hoping to find a new series of the Nerds test tubes or some other obnoxiously giant gummies, but there really wasn't anything exciting.  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to make due with the new branding.

Again, since I'm invoking Halloween, I thought I should point to the Countdown to Halloween site.   It's a resource for finding excellent Halloween blogging content during this coming season.  As I've mentioned, it's the home for a list of blogs participating in the ghoulish fun of the holiday.   I've also created a couple badge/buttons you can use to show your creepy pride and participation in the event if you'd like.  I plan on posting every day during October, and I've chosen a wicked theme that I hope everyone digs.  The festivities start in 13 short days!

(Allee Willis and Paul "Pee Wee Herman" Reubens)

Do you ever have one of those days where everything seems to just coalesce?  Last Friday I woke up to a pseudo press release in my inbox announcing the opening of the Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch on September 14th, and of course the first question that would come out of my mouth had I been awake enough to be enthusiastically talking to myself was, "Who is Allee Willis?"   I tend to get a decent amount of press releases about 80s themed or kitsch/ephemera projects, usually revolving around hip hop groups featuring a bunch of geeky white guys name dropping Axel Foley, He-Man and Rubik's Cubes.   It becomes an automatic process to read through them just far enough to know when it's time to stop and then I flush 'em out of my short term memory.  There was something about this one that stuck with me though.

I didn't think about it all that much, but it was the beginning of a day of odd connections.  When I got into work I stuck one of my favorite mixed CDs into the computer, psyching myself up for a long day of data entry and cataloging media tapes.  The CD features some of my favorite movie anthems including Michael Sembello's Rock Until You Drop from the Monster Squad, Cyndi Lauper's the Goonies are Good Enough, the Fight Song from the Karate Kid, the Cherry Bombs songs from Howard the Duck, the Pointer Sister's Neutron Dance from Beverly Hills Cop, as well as some stuff from Rad, the Legend of Billie Jean and Thrashin'.   Little did I know that almost half of the tunes I was rocking out to were written or co-written by Ms. Willis.  Part of the reason I broke out this CD was that my good friend Kevin and I were going to watch Howard the Duck for the upcoming evening's movie night we hold each Friday.

Anyway, as the day wore on I hit a bunch of sites while on break looking for some fun stuff to read about.   One stop was finally sitting down to read Kirk Demarais' first article on Archie McPhee's new online literary magazine, Monkey Goggles.   The article takes a look at some selections from the 1959 PICO Novelty catalog, in particular a great flask with an awesome kitschy plastic head called the Hip Nip.



I've seen a bunch of novelty flasks, but none quite this novel and fun.  I mean drinking out of a flask that looks like a little tipsy man is just bizarre.  After a bit more web browsing, I remembered to take a closer look at what this Allee Willis was all about.  I whipped over to her blog and started digging through the archives, marveling at her insane collection of odds and ends.  Lo and behold Ms. Willis has her own Hip Nip in the collection.  She even has the sister flask, the Hot Nip. I love it when I find these kind of connections in the junkyard of pop culture.   It's like some sort of affirmation for my interests, as if everything is starting to make sense.  Flipping through the entries in Willis' blog I couldn't help but fall in love with some of her treasures like a fleshy pink cup molded in the image of Mr. Peanut, or this Monty Python Nights-of-Ni-esque four-headed Monkees doll…

   

She even has one of the coolest pieces of wall art known to mankind, a vintage Billie Dee Williams endorsed Colt 45 malt liquor electric sign.  Who do I have to kill to get a hold of one of these beauties?



This is the sort of stuff that I would love to find while digging through antique shops and flea markets.  I never have this kind of luck though, so I can't help but love the idea of the Allee Willis Museum of Kitsch!  You can check out a sneak peek at what to expect by watching this trailer...



As I mentioned above the website is set to open proper tomorrow, Monday the 14th of September in tandem with a week-long physical exhibit in Los Angeles at the newly relocated Ghettogloss art gallery on Melrose.  The gallery will be "…displaying hundreds of amazing artifacts from her rarely-seen-in-person kitsch collection and will frequently be on hand greeting visitors and discussing the Allee Willis Museum of kitsch. Allee's grand kitsch exhibition will feature two fabulous AWMoK launch parties (on Monday, Sept. 14th and Monday, Sept. 21st); the debut of her delightful "What Is Kitsch?" short film series; Allee's unveiling of her featured "Kitsch O' The Day" blog item live at noon daily in the gallery's front window on L.A.'s ever-popular Melrose Avenue; her usual megaton of scrumptious junk food; specially created gourmet treats from L.A.'s hottest new restaurant, Susan Feniger's Street, of which Allee is part owner; live auctions of spectacular kitsch masterpieces hand-picked by Allee herself; a first-time-ever public raffle to win a guided tour of Allee's exclusively private Willis Wonderland; a not-to-be-missed karaoke sing-off of Allee's classic Earth Wind & Fire hit, "September," at the party on the night of the 21st."

To cap last Friday off, and after watching Howard the Duck with my friend, we were scanning to credits to see if Lea Thompson actually sang on any of the Cherry Bombs' songs, when I noticed that Allee Willis co-wrote practically everything on that soundtrack.  Though she's probably better known for writing Boogie Wonderland and co-writing the theme song to Friends, it's her work on the various movie soundtracks of the 80s that I appreciate the most.   I never knew just how much she influenced me and I can't believe I didn't even know her name until this past weekend.   If you get a second and want to be wowed by an insanely awesome collection of sublime pop culture, head on over to Allee Willis' blog and be sure to check out the launch of her Museum on Monday.  Be sure to tell her that Shawn from Branded in the 80s sent ya!

A quick note on the organization of the Cartoon Commentary! columns here at Branded in the 80s.  I've been slowly tweaking the tags and archiving of some of the sections on the site for awhile to try and make this beast a little easier to navigate (since the engine Branded is built on doesn't support a lot of the nicer things like next page functionality, or multiple tags.)  Anyway, I wanted to take a second and point to a new portal page I set up for Cartoon Commentary! which divides the articles I've written by cartoon series as well as individual posts.  By clicking on the banner above, or the one in the sidebar to the left you can reach the portal page where you can choose to view all posts on a particular series or the specific episodes from that series.  It should make navigating the site easier so you wouldn't have to load every single Commentary post on one page.  Next up, wrangling the best that is Peel Here, but that's for another day…

Anyway, in honor of the release of episode 21 of the Saturday Supercast (where I and co-hosts Kevin Cross and Jerzy Drozd deconstruct the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon series) I thought I'd take a closer look at the first broadcast episode of He-Man, the Robby London penned Diamond Ray of Disappearance which had its debut on September 5th, 1983.



As we mentioned in episode 21 of the Supercast, Diamond Ray of Disappearance does a pretty good job of setting the stage for the Masters of the Universe series.  Though it's not an origin episode (not many 80s cartoons had the foresight to set up a continuity), it does spend some time introducing a lot of the main characters that populate the world of Eternia, as well as giving a pretty good overview of what He-Man is capable of.   One subtle aspect to this episode’s introductory nature is the opening title card screen that was chosen for this first episode, a shot from space of the planet and its main continents.  You can get a general gist of the main body of lush green jungle-like land, with the icy mountains to the north, a treacherous desert to the south and to the east, which separates the peaceful region with the fire and brimstone of the region that Skeletor overseas to the far east.

As far as the episode proper, it opens on a shot of the imposing Snake Mountain, which again is a subtle way of starting off the series by introducing the main struggle.  I mean, we're already watching a show called He-Man, and in the opening credits we get the point by point on Adam and his quest, so it makes sense to get into the nitty gritty with Skeletor summoning his minions.  What I really dig about this sequence is that it does a fairly good job of setting the tone for some of the dark fantasy that makes up the periphery of the show.   Between Snake Mountain, and the various spikes and skeletal accoutrements that make up the décor, it sets a pretty creepy tone for a kids show.   Some of the imagery is downright Giger-esque in design, and Skeletor's throne of bone is only slightly removed from the seriously f-ed up human and animal bone furniture in the Texas chainsaw Massacre flick (or for that matter TCM’s real world influences of Ed Gein and Ilse Koch.)  Granted skeletal imagery and evil in fantasy worlds sort of go hand in hand and could be viewed as pretty tame, but it does has some real world connotations that can get pretty heady, especially for kids.  I just think it was a brave move on Filmation's part.



As Skeletor calls his henchmen to his side to explain his nefarious plot with the Diamond Ray, I always thought it was pretty hilarious that he calls Merman who just happens to be in the middle of wrestling a huge aquatic monster…



Another thing that jumped out at me in this opening sequence is some of the Filmation visual trademarks that really define the look and feel of the cartoon.  Because of the limited budget the studio had to produce 65 syndicated episodes of He-Man, there was a lot of limited animation and an extensive collection of stock sequences were devised, so that each episode's new animation burden could be whittled away.  One of these stock sequences features Skeletor in a fit of megalomaniacal fist pumping.   It really is sort of a strange shot, as the edit sort of cuts to an aside soliloquy featuring a mimed or laughing punctuation from the evil leader.



I also thought it was interesting in the first battle sequence that both factions have their own Sky Sleds, though in slightly differing colors…



As a kid I never thought twice about this, but from the perspective of a grown man this seems very odd.   I mean I just always sort of thought that each side designed and constructed their own vehicles.  I know Man-At-Arms is always building and tinkering for the good guys.  Maybe Tri-Klops is doing the same for Skeletor? Anyway, because their both using the same sleds (well except that the evil ones have fangs and the good have molded ears on the gargoyle head that acts as a ram), it gives the impression that there is a third party out there designing vehicles and weaponry for the battle waging across Eternia.

Also, a quick note on Trap Jaw's character design from toy to cartoon.   I thought it was cute that Filmation decided to keep his little hook/eyelet on the top of his helmet, a feature from the toy that let him slide down a zip-line, but in the show is just ornamental.  I've talked before about the differences in cartoon and toy design, and it's always fun to see stuff that should be exclusive to the toys end up in either packaging art or the final cartoon versions.   I mean typically these little things don't have to translate from toy design to other media, I mean not that many kids thought too hard about what happens to Optimus Prime's trailer section when he transforms in the show…



It's also fun to see a little bit of Star Wars influence on the cartoon.   I mean it came out right in the middle of the hype for Return of the Jedi, so it's not surprising, but even so it's fun to see Man-At-Arms wielding a makeshift lightsaber…



I also love the inclusion of Skeletor's Battle Robots to the show's list of villains.  Because Lou Scheimer and Hal Sutherland had such strong ideas on the virtual non-violence in the action of the He-Man cartoon, these robots become yet another in a very long line of violence-friendly punching bags…



There was also a scene with the Sorceress' magic mirror that I thought was neat for a couple of reasons.   One, there is another Filmation visual, a shot framed by He-Man's feet in the foreground which is just really dynamic.   You see this a lot in Filmation's cartoon work, these interesting shot set-ups and uber weird camera angles (either extreme worm's-eye-view or security camera, high up in a corner shots.)   Secondly we get to see the Filmation designer's mind's eye view of what it would look like inside this magical universe, which is apparently a world of Atari?!?



The last thing that really jumped out at me in this episode (that we don't cover in episode 21 of the Saturday Supercast) is an early Orko sequence that has him getting in on the final battle a bit.  There are a lot of character match-ups in this series and this episode in particular.   In fact the set of evil and good characters is almost symmetrical.   He-Man offsets Skeletor, Evil-Lyn the Sorceress, Man-At-Arms and Tri-Klops, Ram-Man and Beastman, Stratos and Trap Jaw, Man-E-Faces and Merman, not to mention Cringer/Battle Cat and Panthor.  Orko though is sort of the odd man out.  There really isn't a reoccurring character that fits Orko's bill on the evil side, his bumbling ways are only sort of echoed in Merman and Beastman.  He's more of an in for the children as viewers, giving them a character to latch onto, one who is a guide to the world of Eternia.



So it's strange to see him step into the battle at the end of the episode and spin Tri-Klops' head silly.   It's sort of out-of-character for Orko, but fun none-the-less.

Again, to listen to Jerzy, Kevin and I wax nostalgic on this episode of He-Man you can download Episode 21 of the Saturday Supercast from the Sugary Serials site (or directly here), or you can subscribe to the show through iTunes.   We're really proud of how the podcast is developing so far and we can't wait to tackle more cartoons in future episodes.  We've got a lot of big plans…

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Mill Creek Entertainment has picked up the license to the 1983 Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, one of my favorite mainstays from Saturday Mornings as a kid.  The series was originally released by BCI Eclipse back in January of 2007, but has since gone out of print due to Navarre shuttering the BCI Ink & Paint imprint.   I was a huge fan of that original set as it was one of the first bright examples of an 80s cartoon property handled with love and care, and one that wouldn't make a permanent dent in your pocketbook.   As much as I hate seeing all the BCI titles starting to drop off into OOP obscurity, I was really glad to hear that Mill Creek was picking up some of the pieces.



That being said, I was a little skeptical of what this would mean for the series being kept alive on DVD.  Mill Creek is most known for distributing public domain material in via large box sets like those 50 movie packs (featuring horror and westerns to name a couple) as well as the 150 packs of old public domain cartoons.  The quality of these public domain titles ranges from medium to poor for the most part and the sets are geared more towards introducing one to obscure nostalgic fare than being a source for nice copies of these movies and cartoons.   From time to time Mill Creek will also take on a licensed property like their releases of the Teddy Ruxpin series.  I picked up one of the TR sets in a dump bin for about $5 and that's pretty much all it was worth.  The video and audio quality of the show left a lot to be desired, but the price was right and honestly that's what Mill Creek is all about.  So how would the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon fare?

Well, I just received an advance copy of the Complete series set, which will hit store shelves on August 25th, and should be retailing for between $13 to $24 depending on where you find it.   They're also releasing an entry level disc which features only the first nine episodes of the cartoon in tandem which should retail for around $10.  After cracking open the set I was both pleasantly surprised and a little bit let down with some quality issues that should have been expected…



First off, the bad. The main issue I have with this set is the packaging.  It's cheap, really cheap and it's sort of a shame.  I guess I was spoiled by the nice embossed sturdy box that the BCI release came in, the beautiful fold out digi-pak that housed the discs, and the included episode guide.  Compared to that the Mill Creek release is about as bare bones as you can get…



This set features all 27 episodes spread over 3 single sided discs which are housed in black paper sleeves that sort of snap into the plastic case.  Granted it keeps the DVDs sturdy enough, but I can imagine over time these paper sleeves are going to get worn and torn up.  Besides this, it's just an annoying to have to pull out the sleeves like this and fish out the disc.  DVD packaging companies are doing wondrous things with minimal packaging these days, and a case like the ones used for the Family Ties releases (that has spindles on either side of the inner case and a flap with a DVD spindle in the middle) would have been a vast improvement at very little increase in cost…



As for the DVDs themselves, they're not bad.   First off, all of the special features from the BCI edition have been stripped.  There is nothing extra on this set, it's just the episodes.  Like I mentioned above, there are a total of 27 episodes, 9 to a disc, and the DVDs default into the episode selection screen for each disc…



The most surprising aspect of this set is how well the quality of the actual video and audio held up.  The BCI discs had up to 7 episodes per disc, so there wasn't a ton of added compression to fit a couple more on, especially considering that all the fancy frills were discarded.  To my eyes, the quality is almost a direct transfer.  As far as the audio goes, it's a little bit quieter on the Mill Creek DVDs, with the background music suffering the most, but it's certainly not to a level that it's ever distracting.  With the video, the Mill Creek version isn't quite as rich, but the difference is really subtle.  Here are some screen to screen comparisons.  The Mill Creek version is on the left, and the BCI on the right…

Mill Creek                                              BCI
  
Mill Creek                                              BCI
  

All in all, if you're more interested in just getting a decente copy of all the episodes, I'd highly suggest picking up a copy of the new Mill Creek set.   It's a little shoddy on the packaging side, but for $13 on Amazon right now it's one hell of a deal.  If you're more concerned with a nicer presentation and a great set of special features, than I suggest picking up one of the remaining BCI sets before they fall into seriously over-priced out of print obscurity.  Amazon still has copies available for around $40.

As far as the cartoon itself, I still love it as much as ever and I'm glad to see it staying in print for a new generation.   If you're interested, you can find my original review of the BCI set, as well as my expanded look at the first 13 episodes from my Cartoon Commentary! column by following these links:

Dungeons and Dragons Overview
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12
Episode 13

Finally getting around to finishing off the Cartoon Commentary! series on the 1st G.I. Joe mini series (A Real American Hero).  This final episode, titled A Stake in the Serpent's Heart, was first broadcast on September 16th, 1983, and it was the last taste kids would get of the cartoon series until the following year when the second mini debuted.  I've said this a number of times recently, but it bears repeating, these first five episodes go a long way in defining the series, and bowing only a week after the first syndicated episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, it also helped to define the next decade of television animation.   1983 really was a banner year for action in cartoons as we also saw the release of Dungeons and Dragons on Saturday mornings, and between these three shows TV animation, at least when it came to action, was free for the first time in over a decade.

Granted, there were shows that flirted with action premises, Super Friends, Blackstar, the Lone Ranger, Thundarr, and Spiderman & His Amazing Friends just to name a few, but all of these shows were just not quite there in terms of bravery.  Even He-Man, for its revolutionary first run syndication, and breaking the ice in terms of injecting action back into cartoons, was still taking a very moral stance on depicting violence.  But G.I. Joe burst onto the scene like Duke amid a group of Cobra Troopers, punching and kicking everything in sight.

So, getting back to the episode at hand, the story picks up from the cliffhanger where Destro and Scarlett are plummeting in an escape pod towards certain doom.  Of course, in the "coming next time on G.I. Joe" segment at the end of the previous episode we clearly see Scarlett running down a Cobra compound hallway, letting all the air out of the opening sequence of this episode…



Where this sequence fails as a cliffhanger, it succeeds in bookending the mini series as Destro leads Scarlett off of the escape pod at Cobra headquarters.  Just like Duke, and with an impassioned fit of feminism from the writers, Scarlett proves herself to be quite the "Woman of Action" as she breaks free and takes on a platoon of Troopers.  It's another example of that never-say-die attitude exhibited by the Joes, and a more subversive example of imbedding a sense of morality into the show.   In He-Man for instance, this morality would be worn on the show's sleeve so to speak, and we'd more than likely be treated to an insightful yet, borderline obvious quote from a character.  Here this sense of always doing the right thing and never giving up is written into the action.  It's still a bit over the top, but much more natural.



One thing that I love about the Sunbow cartoons is their weird villain relationships.  You tend to get a lot of characterization out of these villain characters while watching them bounce off each other.   Like the Starscream/Megatron relationship in Transformers, there's a weird back and forth between Cobra Commander and Destro.  Whereas Starscream always talks big, he usually backs down to Megatron (except when Megs is at his weakest in the 1986 Movie, but that's a story for another time.)  On the one hand, Destro seems independent, the head of his own arms dealing organization, yet on the other he's always vying for and temporarily taking control of Cobra.   Unlike Starscream though, Destro is the more physically imposing in his tête-à-tête, and he has no problem grabbing Cobra Commander by the lapels and shaking him until he stops hissing.  In fact, it's almost a reversal of the Starscream/Megatron relationship.  So in watching G.I. Joe you can see what it's like when a seemingly meeker character like Cobra Commander is in control.   I think this is part of what makes these two cartoons so enjoyable, both for their own character building through bickering, and because the two series play off each other, filling in the gaps in storytelling opportunities.



Digging a bit deeper into this mutinous sequence where Destro assumes command of the M.A.S.S. device operation, there are a lot of interesting things going on visually.  In the forefront is Cobra Commander's ease with flamboyance.  He's sporting one heck of a pink cape in honor of his impending victory for starters.  He's also decided to accessorize with a cane/scepter/staff sort of deal.   I've always been baffled by this sort of prop.  I mean, sure you can beat people over the head with it, but it's still sort of a weird thing to just have lying around.  It's take a certain pretension or effort to carry a cane or scepter.

Also, there's a really nice shot after Cobra Commander throws his staff at Destro.  The choice of having the sequence with Destro rising up and stalking back toward CC all reflected in Cobra Commander's face plate in extreme close-up is really well done.  It's both visually stunning and portrays a lot of emotion.   Even though you can't see his face, a shot like this just drips with fear, dread, and "Oh crap, I think I overstepped my bounds…"



What's even more interesting to me is that even with some great visual direction going on in this episode, there are some tragic and weird missteps.  In the next sequence, we see Scarlett thrown into a dungeon cell with Selena.  The decision was to keep these scenes dark and ominous, but the animation took a turn for the downright bizarre…



As you can see in the images above, at first the scene places out overly dark and gloomy which is really effective.  I think it's also sort of neat as overbearing blacks and a heavy contrast are typically not used like this in cartoons.   But as the scene progresses I think guys doing the actual ink and paint work went nuts with the concept.   Having Scarlett's eyes and lips rendered as if they were lit by normal light when almost everything else is black or heavy grey is really weird and suspiciously cartoon-y (like in one of those lights-out sequences in a Looney Tunes short from the 50s.)  This gets to a point where her one eye is illuminated and it's just weird, like it's pitch black on one half of her face and normally lit on the other.  To top off the weirdness, the last little bit has a very more realistic take on the lighting with Scarlett in heavy shadow, but rendered with darker versions of the skin tones instead of solid blacks.  It's almost as if the animation shop manager ended up walking the floor and saw all the guys splattering black all over the cels and he had to show them how to do it correctly.

I believe this sort of weird sequence is a result of sending the animation overseas to be rendered.  It's not that Toei is lax with the work or that the animators are unskilled, in fact I believe just the opposite.  It's more a matter of language and cultural barriers that muck up the communications.  There's a great special feature on one of the King of the Hill DVD sets that sheds some light on this process.  When the American animators are penciling the key scenes, and writing the notes for the overseas animators, they have to be painstakingly concise and clear about what they want.  Any general note, say to keep the scene in shadow, without specifically describing how you want this shadow rendered will end up in a very obvious super deep shadow like we see above.   I think this is one of the reasons we tend to not see as much dynamic animation (read, stuff with nice shading in the cels) coming out of shows that are designed in one location and shipped out to be animated in another.   It takes much too long to annotate all the scenes, and it's much easier to keep things simple.  Of course there are also monetary and time issues.

One thing this episode doesn't lack is several over the top moments that skirt that edge of realism and do a rather surprising job of ratcheting up the tension.  At the end of the scene where Scarlett meets Selena, there is some kicking and breaking of furniture that is really pointless, if not fun.  Then as the two are led out to water the slaves, there's a scene with a guard that looks like a mixture of a hangman/executioner from the medieval times, complete with black hood and bare chest (with some rather intimidatingly ripped abs.)



That's not to mention Destro's sudden insane fits of melodramatic and megalomaniacal laughter...

This all leads up to a sequence that is both very beautiful and very anticlimactic at the same time.  As Cobra and the Joes raced all over existence looking for the crucial catalytic elements to power their respective M.A.S.S. devices, it all culminates in both machines firing beams of energy across the globe, meeting up in a colorful blaze of glory over New York City, and then that's pretty much the end of that plot.  Sure, with tons of backlit animation it's really brilliantly animated, but it's a whole heck of a lot of build up for that to be the end, at least for the devices...



Of course, it's not the end of the episode or the mini series, but it's sort of an early climax that doesn't do a whole lot for me.

Getting back to some weirdness for a second, I mentioned in a couple of the last Cartoon Commentary! columns that there is a nice mix of current day and some sci-fi elements that make up the background elements of the show.  It sort of places the series in an alternate 1980s reality that both dates it and defines it.  One aspect to this is the weird medical contraptions that Doc has at his disposal.   He'd already tried to help Duke remember where he'd been kidnapped to in an earlier episode, and for his second try he takes out all the stops and submerges Duke in what looks like one of those Bacta tanks from Star Wars…



This contraption enables Doc to project images from Duke's mind onto a screen so they can sort through and find out where the Cobra base was.  Along the way we get a nice montage on Duke's back-story, watching him fight off bullies that were plaguing the undefended, as well as where his physical and manly prowess comes from.  Eventually we get to his Joe class ring and the fact that he left it with Selena.  Good thing it can also work as a tracking device!

This gets into a little bit of the under-branding that the government (and Hasbro/Sunbow) has done with the G.I. Joe project.  Whereas Cobra has its insignia, the Joes don’t have a real identifying symbol outside of some text and the flag.  Of course, the flag isn't as prominent as some of the Cobra iconography in the G.I. Joe cartoon, but the logo text does show up in the tiniest places…



This is an area that I think the new movie tried to remedy, yet at the same time it fails.  The Joes have an eagle themed symbol in the new flick, and honestly, it just looks weird.  I think I would have been happy with the American flag alone (though I know they're trying to make it a more international team this time out.)

Even though I felt that the M.A.S.S. device plot ends a bit anticlimactically, it doesn't mean there isn't a crazy end battle that seals up the mini series with a bang.  In fact it's pretty darn exciting and weird.   As the Joes realize they have a tracking device available at the Cobra location, they begin beaming all their troops ala Star Trek to that castle area.   Of course, they come prepared with these weird mountain-climbing spider leg attachments for all their land vehicles so they can scale the castle walls…



Cobra also breaks out a wide variety of defenses ranging from the tried and true cauldron of boiling lava (to be poured on the scaling troops) to a futuristic floating platform for the troops to hover and shoot from.  There are Sky Strikers making raids on the castle roof, anti-aircraft guns being hoisted to the top of the structure, and even Doc, the medic, gets in on the action…



Though not labeled as a pacifist like the later medic, Lifeline, it's still weirdly out of place to see him firing a laser in the trenches…

To top it all off Cobra Commander call out his uber snake robots to deal with the Joes…



I love the pointless, yet brand specific, hanging snake tongues on all the robots.   Again, you can just hear the conversation between the weapons designer and Cobra Commander (actually, this Lil'Formers comic pretty much sums it up.)   It's a good thing that Snake Eyes plays the ultimately prepared commando in this series…



Here's a question, who is that guy in the civies?  I seem to remember him from the show, but for the life of me I can't place his name…



We also get one of probably only two or three romantic moments in the series as Duke confronts the freed Selena (who proceeds to plant a huge kiss on his lips.)  In the next couple scenes, Duke ends up with Selena hanging off one arm and Scarlett the other proving he really is a lady's man.



The last thing in this episode that I love is watching Cobra Commander skulking away with a dirty ragged blanket on and a basket over his head.  This is about as over the top comical as you can get.  It's very vaudevillian and perfectly sums up his character…



Well, this closes out my look back at the 1st G.I. Joe mini series.  I thought I'd take a moment to again plug the Saturday Supercast over at Sugary Serials.  We talk about this episode in the second part of our discussion on G.I. Joe (you can find the episode here.)  Jerzy, Kevin and I have already recorded our third and fourth episodes, another two-parter that delves into another great 80s cartoon franchise.  Hopefully we'll have those episodes edited and posted in the coming weeks.  Also, if you're getting the bug to watch this great mini series again, you could always head on over to Amazon and pick up the new set recently released by Shout! Factory.

In the interest of seeing whether or not I can keep the Branded in the 80s podcasts flowing, here's another episode that's dedicated to some of my memories of the various bicycles I had growing up.  I talk for a little bit about my first two bikes, a hand-me-down yellow beauty that had a girl's frame an a great banana seat, and my first dirt bike, a Huffy that was white and black with red trim and a cushioned upper handlebar that saved me from cracking my skull open on a few occasions…

   

…as well as the bike love of my life, my 1987 baby blue GT Performer that had great white and pink trim.  Unfortunately I don't have any personal photos of that bike, but below there's an almost identical representation.   Mine had black dice for air nozzle caps and a set of white metal pegs that attached to the hub of the back wheel, but it’s pretty much exactly like mine…

   

I also talk about the wondiforous 80s BMX flick RAD, Eddie Fiola (pictured in the GT Performer ad above), Bart Conner (who played Bart Taylor the semi-evil BMX god that rode for Mongoose bikes in the Rad flick), Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin, Talia Shire, John Farnham (who gave us some great 80s anthems in Rad), and of course the infamous freestyle BMX dance sequence from Rad…



If you enjoyed this podcast and if you haven't read it, here's my more in depth review of the Rad movie, and here's some Rad trivia from star Bill Allen's site.  Also, if you're enjoying my rambling podcast then I'd also like to point you to the other show I'm doing now, the Saturday Supercast over at Sugary Serials.com where I'm joined by co-hosts Jerzy Drozd and Kevin Cross (two great comic artists.)  We deconstruct our favorite cartoons of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and the first two episodes are available for download (parts one and two of a discussion on the first G.I. Joe mini series from 1983.)

It's funny.  When I stop and think, really think, about merchandising and ad campaigns, it amazes me just how devious some of the practices are, especially when it's aimed at kids.  It's an area that I have strong feeling about, and weirdly it's in support of both sides of the issue.  Let me back up for a second.  This all stems from a handful of stickers I wanted to share today, these Burger King branded puffy stickers (probably from around 1984 or so judging by similar stickers from other fast food chains…)



The basic conundrum is whether or not it's appropriate to use a branded product as fodder for kid’s toys and the like.  I mean, how many kids are brand loyal for a fast food chain at that age?  Why would a kid pick up a pack of BK puffy stickers except because of the familiar logo design and the fact that it's a sticker?  So it's like getting a kid (or more likely their parent) to pay for an advertisement.  I think the fact that these are Burger Kind stickers sort of sits wrong in my craw because to be honest, the King character was always sort of creepy and hollow to me.  What's his back story?   I'm positive he has one, but for the life of me (and without checking a wiki article) I haven't the slightest clue.  This is certainly not a defense, but at least Ronald McDonald has a personality and I can understand why kids get fascinated with the McDonald-land characters.

It also reminds me of these super tacky school supplies I saw at Target the other day.  They were from a company called Terracycle which specializes in marketing products that use recycled materials, in particular junk food packaging.  There were pencil cases made from old Doritos cases and Capri Sun pouches, as well as binders made from similar materials.  Looking on there website there's also backpacks, lunchboxes, and messenger bags as well.   On the surface this seems like a great idea, but really it's just the worst kind of marketing ploy to wrap kids in billboards before sending them off to school.  Is there a reason that the logos on the packaging had to face outward?  Nope, and I'm sure Terracycle is getting some sort of subsidy from the companies whose products they're recycling.   It just seems kind of evil in a way.

On the other hand, the legacy that this sort of crass marketing has in terms of acting as a pop culture time capsule is amazing.  We live in a world where we're inundated with so much stuff, most of it products, and as distasteful as that environment can be it also provides a subconscious side effect as acting as sort of a Rosetta stone that helps us remember our past.  I've mentioned this concept before and it bears repeating.  Everyone probably has a fond memory of hanging out with family snacking on a particular cracker or sipping a specific brand of soda.   Since products are constantly changing in appearance or dropping off the face of the earth to be replaced by some new version, the old acts as a portal to that specific memory.

I mean I can still buy Betty Crocker Fruit Roll-Ups at any supermarket and they're pretty meaningless to my existence.  But back in the 80s when Fruit Roll-Ups were still being produced by the Fruit Corners company, and they looked and tasted different, it means something different to me now.  When they were first released, the process of packaging the thin sheets of processed fruit leather was far from perfected, and often the fruity sheet would get so stuck to the plastic it was wrapped in it was damn near impossible to remove.   Because of this, and because I was a super lazy and weird kid I used to stick the whole thing, wrapper and all, in my mouth.  I'd chew on that sucker until all I could taste was the plastic backing, and then I'd spit it out into the trash.  Well one time when my father took me hiking in the woods all I had to snack on were said Fruit Roll-Ups and my less than brilliantly deductive mind didn't think of what I would do with a left over chewed and slimy piece of plastic backing, and I ended up keeping it in my cheek like a screwy hamster for the entire hike, making myself sick and my father disgusted.  Now, thinking back on it, it's a fond memory, a memory I owe to a product.  If I had the opportunity to get a hold of a bunch of original Fruit Corners branded Fruit roll-Up package stickers it would be a huge boon that would always take me back to that hiking trip with my dad.

Who knows, maybe the Burger King mascot, or a Whopper puffy sticker is someone else's gateway to a fond memory.  May those Capri Sun pencil cases will be an amazingly fond memory for a kid.   I'm so torn on the subject.

Anyway, here are some related articles on Branded you might find interesting:

Current trend in Fast Food gimmicks

Creepy Anthropomorphized Food

Burger King Frozen Coke's

Wendy's and miscellaneous product puffy stickers (towards the end of the sticker collection)

I did not see this coming.  I've heard that sometimes patience can be rewarded, and this past week I think mine has finally paid off.  Just over a year ago I mentioned the impending release of the Complete Real Ghostbusters cartoon on DVD from Time Life, and to be honest I was a little bitchy about the whole deal.  Basically TL was offering the series exclusively through their website at slightly bloated price of $180.  For the most part I'm not a fan of complete series sets, at least not ones this large as they tend to be overpriced, come in odd, overly flashy packaging, and usually contain bonus material not available on collections of individual season sets.  This last trend tends to bug me if only because complete series sets are usually released after any individual sets have finished coming out and it's an example of the worst in DVD double dipping. 

Lately this trend has been reversed, particularly with 80s cartoon properties, and to Time Life's credit the full series came first.  The set was still about $60 too much and I have to say that I appreciate it when other options are available.  Even with their payment plan, you're still overpaying for a series that's been around for 20 odd years, and a lot of that money is going into useless "shiny" packaging.  Steelbook cases wrapped in a lenticular box is a bit of overkill, especially when these sets aren't sitting on store shelves wowing potential customers.   Lets be honest, most people who pick up this set are going to wedge it on a shelf between the rest of their DVD boxsets and aren't going to get all that much appreciation out of the presentation.



All griping aside, and getting to the gist of this post, is the tip-off from TV Shows on DVD.com that Amazon has just put up a pre-order for the Complete Series set.   Again, I did not see this coming.  Time Life has a history of sitting on home video releases for shows that they keep exclusive sales rights to, in particular the Muppet Show which was only available in hideously expensive two-episode single-disc editions for almost a decade.   I mean I was pretty happy towards the end of last year when they relented a little on the Real Ghostbusters and made the first volume of the series available to regular retail.  This news though is a coup, and hopefully it's a sign that they're willing to expand the purchasing options for shows they license.

The best part of this news is that Amazon is currently knocking $54 off the MSRP, making the set much more affordable at $126!  Even with the summer sale that Time Life has been running (taking $35 off the price to bring it in line with the cost of the Shout! Factory complete G.I. Joe and Transformers sets) this is the cheapest it's been yet.  Yeah, I know what you're thinking, it's only a 30% drop, but doing the math, the cost per volume is roughly $25, which is a heck of an improvement over the original $36 per volume price.  Also for those of us that aren't that interested in the final seasons of the show (the Slimer & the Real Ghostbusters years), this is a great way to subsidize having to pick those up as well.

The bottom line is that this move by Time Life was enough to win me over.   It's still a dent in the checkbook, but it's at least justifiable now…

I was going to post the last Cartoon Commentary! column for the original G.I. Joe mini series today, but I thought I'd take a second to share some sad news instead.   I found out yesterday that actor/humanitarian Les Lye passed away on Tuesday the 21st.  Most people probably know nothing about this great man, but for kids like me who grew up in the 80s glued to Nickelodeon Mr. Lye was a huge part of our lives.  Les Lye was an icon in Canadian children's television, and thanks to Nickelodeon's forward thinking when it came to their slate of international shows in their original programming schedule, kids all over America got a chance to watch You Can't Do That on Television at least twice a day for around fourteen years (between the original 10 seasons and reruns for years after.)  The children's sketch comedy show was broadcast from 1979 until 1990, and the only mainstay from beginning to end, and the guy who really helped to give a voice and feel to the comedy was Mr. Lye.

For me, growing up in the 80s, You Can't Do That on Television was my first year exposure to sketch comedy.   It opened my eyes and primed me for shows like Monty Python, Kids in the Hall, and SCTV, the Upright Citizen's Brigade, the State and of course Saturday Night Live, and of all the great character performers, Phil Hartman, Eugene Levy, Christopher Guest, Mark McKinney, Dana Carvey, Michael Palin, Andrea Martin, Matt Besser, Thomas Lennon, and Joe Lo Truglio, Les Lye was doing work that was shoulder to shoulder.  There was a little bit of Lon Chaney in his range as he embodied at least 13 regular characters, each distinct and hilarious, not to mention a ton of other adult male roles for the show.

He's probably best known for playing Ross Ewich, the program director at YCDTOTV, infusing a little bit of Pat Harrinton's One Day at a Time character Schneider as well as his own brand of sleazy manager and general foil for the kids.  Of course, his portrayal of Barth Bagge, the short order cook from hell is nothing short of genius.  I don't think there was a kid exposed to that character that didn't find themselves uttering the catchphrase "I heard that…" on a daily basis.  Here's a gallery of some of his best characters…

Ross Ewich, Barth, & Blip (the arcade proprietor)…

      

The Principal, the teacher (Mr. Schidtler, one part Hitler one part Wallace Shawn), and the crazed bus driver Snake Eyes…

      

The Executioner El Capitano (who always manages to get himself shot), the dungeon torturer Nasti, and the Groucho Marx inspired doctor…

      

The studio announcer, and later there was also the camel-nosed football coach, and the similarly unfortunately-schnozed camp counsler…

      

My favorite by far was his character Lance Prevert the resident father and drunken Senator…



Whereas most people seem to find Homer Simpson as the most modern relate-able father figure, for me it will always be Les Lye's Dad.  There was just something magical about his shabby, filthy appearance with the crazy bird's nest of reddish brown hair and that slight five o'clock shadow.

I've read nothing but great things about Mr. Lye, how he was giving of his time, super gracious to his fans, and an amazing guy to work with, and though I never got a chance to meet him, I'll miss him terribly just the same.  Hopefully one day Viacom with get their collective thumbs out of their asses and finish their plans to put You Can't Do That on Television out on DVD so that more generations of kids can get exposed to all the amazing stuff from that show, in particular Mr. Les Lye.  You can find some episodes of the show at the great Manchester Morgue blog.

I've talked in the past about the function of pop culture as a sort of Rosetta Stone for deciphering the past.  How a picture of an Otter Pop can help unlock very specific memories of times and places, and eventually, when you string enough of these together you start to get a grasp on what it was like to live in another lifetime.  The key to this exercise is finding the objects that can transport you back, those pop culture touchstones, not just the obvious ones, but the subtle bits and pieces.  For me, the best source of these elusive treasures is advertising.  That's one of the reasons I love it when guys like Esteban over at the Vintage space Toaster Palace spend umpteen hours going blind while scanning microfiche for ad circulars and sale notices from newspapers from all over the country, compiling all sorts of toy robot goodness.  On the outside it might seem crazy, but it's important, even if it sounds like Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters sculpting mashed potatoes important.  It helps to weave a tapestry that acts as a portal into the past.

For me, my goldmine is old magazines.  Some reap better material than others, but all of them usually have something that shines, usually in the form of an ad, but sometimes there’s some gold in the articles as well.  Unfortunately, depending on where you live in a particular state or in the country, finding magazines from years past can be quite the hassle.  I mean, they are periodicals, and more or less designed to be disposable, so you tend to have to rely on hoarders and pack rats.  On top of that, you have to wait for them to want to part with these treasures, and even then for these people to be motivated enough to drag them to flea markets, used bookstores and to eBay.  I'll be honest, this isn't a very reliable group to begin with, so the chances of finding anything outside of the odd People or Life magazine is pretty rare.  In particular the kid-themed zines like Stickers, Muppet, Hot Dog, Electric Company, Dynamite, or the various movie and TV show specials.  Even rarer are the cartoon property magazines like Thundercats, Masters of the Universe, and G.I. Joe, at least in my experience.   I've found a handful of these, and for a fun little diversion from the Joe mini series discussion this week, yet still sort of on topic, I thought I'd break out my copy of G.I. Joe magazine from Spring 1988…



The magazine ran for at least 9 issues and the bulk of them were published quarterly in 1987 and 1988.  I have no idea how I found out about it (though it was most likely from an advert that was package with one of the vehicles), but I had a subscription during the 1987 season.   I picked this copy up at a second hand book store a few years ago.  These weren't very big, usually only running about 30 odd pages, but back in the summer of '87 I was completely enamored with 'em, reading, and re-reading the articles and news.   I also clipped the covers and put them on my wall, right next to my Ralph Macchio and Lost Boys posters.

As for this issue, well it reminds me how out of touch I was getting in 1988 with the G.I. Joe franchise.  I'd pretty much stopped buying new figures at this point (probably having moved on to Micro Machines, baseball cards, and comic books), and I'm more or less unfamiliar with this crop of figures.  The last figure I remember buying at this time was the hooded Storm Shadow (who had just left Cobra to join G.I. Joe.)  I only remember Road Pig because of his striking resemblance to Sven-Ole Thorsen, that actor from the 80s that always seemed to end up as Arnold Schwarzenegger's nemesis in movies.   Looking back on some of the file cards, I think Hasbro was really running out of steam on these characters, I mean Spearhead (the one in the driver's seat) was a first class insurance salesman for crying out loud!



Basically these were variations on boys life magazines, with a few articles on sports, a bit of movie and television news, the odd interview and a G.I. Joe short story…



Looking back, it's kind of weird how the magazine was set up, treating the G.I. Joe characters as if they existed (and guest edited an issue or two), but I suppose for kids this isn't all that odd.   I don't think I ever wrote into the magazine, but I'd be willing to bet it wasn't for lack of trying to pen a magnum opus of a letter.  I seem to remember trying my hand at drawing a picture of a Sky Striker in a dogfight with a Cobra Rattler, but never finishing it…



I think it's interesting that a handful of these drawings are based on the card art for the figures (in particular Falcon, and Cobra Commander in Battle Armor below.)  Though these end up looking like the more technically proficient pieces, I'm more interested in the drawings that came totally from the kid's minds (like the friendly Nemesis Enforcer waving or Blowtorch striking a pose.)



I feel a little bad for any kids who begged their parents to pick up a subscription from the ad in this issue as there would only be three more produced at this point.   I bet those kids lamented not receiving that final unproduced issue in the Spring of 1989.  On the other hand, maybe sporting a pair of those badass G.I. Joe themed sunglasses made the pain float away.  Who knows…



Here's an example of the type of news a boy can really use…



That's right, look out for Crocodile Dundee II coming soon to a theater near you.   Now that I think about it, Paul Hogan's career ended about the same time that this magazine finally died out in the winter of 1988…

Anyway, as I mentioned above, what really gets me excited about these back issues are the ads.  There were only a few really cool ones in this issue, but they're gems.  First up is this Sunkist Fruit Snacks ad featuring the cast of the Archie comics…



Back in the 80s, the Sunkist Fruit snacks were some of my favorites, but then again, that was back when it was just them and Fruit Corners producing the original Fruit Rollups.  Now most fruit snacks are under the Betty Crocker branding, and they all sort of taste super artificial.  It's just not the same.

Next up is another death knell, except in this case it was ringing in the end of the G1 Transformers line of toys with the release of the Pretenders figures…



Honestly, just based on this ad I would have been floored to pick some of these up at the time.   I just remember being really disappointed with them though, as they were sucky in "human mode" and not all that great as Transformers.   It reminds me though, that Nala over at Plastic Crack recently found one of these beauties mint in box while he was cleaning up his parent's basement…

Rounding out the advertising goodness is an application for the Ernest P. Worrell Fan Club!  I don't know about you guys, but I can freely admit to loving Jim Varney.   I grew up on the Ernest local fox affiliate commercials in Florida, and always thought he was a local sensation.  By the time Ernest Goes to Camp and the Saturday Morning show Hey Vern, It's Ernest came along I was hooked.  Granted, the Ernest movies overstayed their welcome after the surreal Ernest Goes to Jail, but I'll always have a special little place in my heart for the Jim Varney and his zany antics…



In this issue we also get an interview with ALF, which is odd on a couple levels. On the one hand, the magazine is sort of written from the point of view of the Joe team, so imaginary characters like Storm Shadow are writing and editing articles.  On the other, these fictional characters are interviewing ALF, not Paul Fusco (the producer, writer, and voice behind the puppet), but the character himself…







Each issue also featured a G.I. Joe short story, like Space Shuttle Spin-Out here, which typically had some pretty awful illustrations.  I think even as a kid these paintings bugged me…







It's was probably the juxtaposition with the awesome cover art, and the really badass art on the pull out posters (see this issue's below) that got me hating the interior art.



Finishing out the magazine are a few pages of puzzles…





…and an ad for a sister publication, Thundercats Magazine.  Though I'm sure it's more of the same, I've never gotten a chance to take a gander inside one of these, so I'm kind of curious.   I wonder why there wasn't a Transformers magazine?



Anyway, tomorrow I'll be back with the final installment of the G.I. Joe original mini series Cartoon Commentary! column…

In the meantime here are some other articles I've written about magazines over the years…

Stickers Magazine Issue #7
Stickers & Stuff Magazine Issue #14
Muppet Magazine
...as well as my archive of TV Guide Fall Preview Issues...

I don't know how obvious it is, but I'm really excited to be podcasting again.  As some of the long time readers might remember, this site started at a platform for a podcast I was doing on my nostalgia memories, but what I discovered pretty quickly is that I had a difficult time getting across the type of info I wanted without having to basically write the whole thing out as a one man monologue show.  Though I talk to myself all the time, the act of sitting behind the mic to record it by myself feels pretty damn weird.   I'm no Spalding Gray, and I have absolutely no yearning to do stand-up, so finding that comfortable place to podcast from is hard.

At the same time though, I love listening to podcasts, and I really want to give a little back to the community, particularly when I see a niche that needs to be filled.  I really think the Saturday Supercast is going to go a long way in filling that whole, which is a deconstruction of cartoons (as well as some other similar fare, but that's for later.)  There are a lot of fun shows out there that focus on a particular cartoon franchise, but most don't stray too far past "OMG" and "It's so cool when…".  Granted, it's hard not to, with any interest in a subject, this is typically the first sort of gut reaction, but it's only part of the equation.  Anyway, I just wanted to say again, that I'm having a lot of fun with the new show and I hope some of you take the time to download an episode or two and can get into it.

As I mentioned on this past post, we released the second half of the G.I. Joe discussion, so I thought I'd spend the rest of the week talking up G.I. Joe.  Though I was weaned on He-Man and Star Wars, G.I. Joe was the main franchise I grew up with.   I collected the toy line throughout most of the 80s, and it was the main cartoon that I ran home from school to watch.  There were a lot of other similar shows, and I'm pretty sure I watched most of them, but they were all second choice to G.I. Joe A Real American Hero.  This first mini series is a great example of what the show had to offer, in particular in the second half.  For this column I'm going to focus on episode 3, the Worms of Death which debuted on September 14th, 1983…



One of the things that G.I. Joe did very well was keeping the action and adventure thrilling in the episodes by ending each act break, and sometimes episodes, with a cliffhanger.  When we left off in the second episode, Snake Eyes had shut himself off in a chamber filled with radioactive crystals to save his teammates.  This episode picks up with a still breathing yet, glowing Snake Eyes plodding on.  Honestly, I have no clue what true radiation exposure might lead to (besides burns, sickness and death), but my guess is it doesn't involve glowing pink (red if you get the new color corrected DVD set.)  Even so it makes for a great visual, and an interesting tête-à-tête as he stumbles out into the waiting arms of a Cobra platoon led by Major Bludd.  Bludd has his men stand down, declaring SE a walking time-bomb who is sure to die momentarily.   I thought it was both unrealistic and strikingly real at the same time, as it paints the villain in a slightly more human light as well as introducing a bit of battlefield respect.  Though not a direct team-up against a common foe (as we'll see a bit later in the episode), it's moments like this that make the villains likable enough that you being to love to hate them.

Also in the sequence pictured above, we get a glimpse into the futuristic technology available to the characters in this universe.  You can see a bit of both 50s Sci-Fi in the spider repair bot that Cobra has as well as a little homage to Star Wars in the droid that's being prepared (it look a whole heck of a lot like the interrogation droid Vader used on Leia in the first flick.)  This advanced technology is one of the visual cues that defines the look of the series over time as we see in this next bit as well…



For a field medic, Doc certainly has some fancy toys to play with, including this helmet unit he's using to try and help Duke remember the events of the past couple of days.  I guess in a way there's a bit of Star Trek in this series as well as Star Wars.  Again, it's this sort of genre blending that makes this show so appealing, even as an adult 25 odd years later.  If this cartoon were just straight battle and military shenanigans, I don't think it would have held my interest as well.



So structurally, in particular visually, the whole crux of this original mini series really is based on showcasing the variety that the show was going to delve into.  If you watch the original 1963 toy line pitch for G.I. Joe (available on the new season 1.1 DVD set), this is a perennially landmark of the franchise, playing up the versatility of the modern American military.  Whereas last episode introduced us to Snowjob and took us to the glaciers and snowcaps of the arctic, this episode dives below the sea with Torpedo in search of the second catalytic element for the M.A.S.S. Device, heavy water.  This sequence is fun because we get to see the Joes suit up for the challenge, much in the same way you could redress the older figures in the 60s and 70s, but we also get a special team member to lead them which is another defining aspect of the G.I. Joe franchise.  The team is made up of a ton of specialists that are the best there is at what they do.  It's a rag tag unit, and it makes for a very collectible and dynamic set of characters.



Back to Snake Eyes for a second though.   Again, if there is one thing this mini series does well is establish the toy line and cartoon, setting up many aspects that would define the franchise.  Another small piece of the puzzle are the various animal familiars that both factions end up with.  Here we get Snake Eyes running into Timber for the first time.   His action figure wasn't packaged with the trusty wolf until the second, more ninja-fied version, but it's a mainstay of the character.   Whether it's Spirit with Freedom, Shipwreck and Polly, Mutt and Junkyard, there always seemed to be a bond between animals and Joe figures.  Heck even Sepentor had his snakes, Croc Master had his crocodile, and Raptor had his falcon.



Timber though, certainly adds to the mystery that is Snake Eyes.  Not only is he mute and under a mask impossible to read, he apparently has a manner (or scent!) dominant yet slight enough to befriend a wolf, the poster child for wild animals.   It gives the character a soft yet dangerous undertone.  It's very unpredictable.

Something that we mention in the podcast that I thought was worth delving a little further into is the Bride of Frankenstein reference in this sequence with Snake Eyes in the snowy wilderness.  Right after he frees Timber from the hunter's trap, the two are confronted by a polar bear.  Sick with radiation poisoning, Snake Eyes isn't able to fend off the bear, and with a failed attempt by timber to save him they are both left for dead.  At the last second they are saved by a mysterious burly blind man, who uses a cattle prod to fend off the bear.  He brings Snake Eyes and Timber back to his shack in the woods where there is a distinct Bride of Frankenstein vibe.  What I found interesting about this was that in the Writer's Guide, one of the emphasized passages all but forbid reference to Frankenstein.  At first I thought this was a little weird, but then it dawned on my that most of these writers would have been in their mid to late 30s, early 40s, which would mean that they grew up during the second coming of the Universal monster craze of the 50s.  These writers were probably all monster-kids to some extent and therefore I'll bet it was one of the most common themes to reference Frankenstein and Dracula in scripts.  I'm sure the editors were sick to death of seeing that stuff.



Anyway, back to the underwater action.  The search for the Heavy Water takes the Joe team to great set piece at the bottom of the sea.  It looks like something out of Clash of the Titans, an arena underwater, yet at the same time there is a very distinct Thunderball vibe as well…



Well, the "columns" are actually home to giant tube worms, which is a great example of how nothing was off the table when it came to the plots of this cartoon!



On the one hand I can totally see this as a distracting element that a lot of people going back to the show might hate.  I mean giant monsters?   How unreal is that.  Though I can sympathize with that, I have to say that I do love monsters, and honestly I think it's an aspect that works about this series.  When you strip away fantastical elements like this, all you have left is the conflict between the two opposing factions, and in the end, because it’s written for an all ages crowd, it would end up simply being a parody of real life military conflict.  This is where I think the new Resolute cartoon fails.   I'm not saying it needed a dose of giant tube worms, but in its quest for being uber realistic it's fighting with the very thing which it is, a cartoon.  At that point the cartoon medium is not a tool, it's a restriction to making the world as realistic as it could be.  Maybe the fact that it's a cartoon still helps in the budgetary department, letting them realize settings and situations that would be cost prohibitive in live action, but that's about it.  There's no other reason to shoot it as a cartoon, not when it's striving to be so real.

Alight, got off on a bit of a rant there.  The worms.  The worms worked so well for me in this episode.  Not only were they super creepy with their wailing, but the mostly toothless design on their gaping mouths just freaked me out.   It's also the perfect opportunity to get the two factions working together against a common foe which does wonders for the character development between the two forces…



Of course, like any good villain, the truce only lasts for as long as it's in their favor, the Baroness immediately double crosses the Joe team.  As an aside, one of the things that I really dug about the 25th anniversary toy line that was recently released was that there were a lot of cartoon-centric figures being released.  In particular there was a box set of figures molded after this mini series that came with a Baroness in her red wetsuit (as well as a semi-translucent glowing pink Snake Eyes figure.)  It was kind of cool to finally see figures that were so cartoon specific on the shelves.



Getting back to Snake Eyes, and a bit of James Bond again, I thought it was funny how easily he's relieved of his radiation predicament.  The blind woodsman strips him of his clothes, and washes them, while burning all the stuff that he can clean.   It reminds me of the sequence in Dr. No when Connery and Ursula Andress are cleaned after walking through the radiation field.  It just seems way too easy.  I also enjoyed this bit because Snake Eyes is unmasked, yet the audience is kept from seeing his face. There’s no explanation for this, just a building sense of mystery to the character.  This is an aspect that works so well for keeping interest in characters over a long stretch of time.   It plays on the audience trying to fill in the blanks, and adds an unpredictable richness in this participation.  It's like Darth Vader or Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget.  When the mystery is revealed, the characters lose a lot of what makes them so interesting.  Sure there's a bit of closure, but sometimes this isn't necessary.



Yet another reoccurring theme of the show is also introduced in this episode with the back and forth banter between the characters Short Fuze and Steeler.  These buddy pairings are a mainstay, and it's part of what makes the writing so attractive in cartoons like this.  Watching two friendly yet opposing characters bump against each other, razzing and cracking jokes does wonders for shorthand characterization.



One of the other things I thought was really neat about this episode was the short bit in space.  As if marching all over the globe from the arctic to under the sea wasn't enough excitement, we also get a bit more Star Wars in space.  I love the design on the Cobra space troopers.  Again, it's another nod to Bond with the Moonraker flick.  Whereas it came off goofy in Moonraker, it fits in perfectly in an episode of G.I. Joe which to me is telling…



Last but not least, I think it was interesting to see some of the uneven aspects to this early Sunbow produced animation.  I believe the Toei company did the physical animation, and every once in awhile the anime influence would slip into the cels like in the sequence below with Duke…



It's a little thing, but interesting none the less…

So the Saturday Supercast Jerzy Drozd, Kevin Cross and I recorded recently was pretty mammoth.  We ended up talking about the 1st G.I. Joe cartoon mini series for well over two hours and it was decided to break the show in half to make it easier to consume.  This worked out pretty well for me, at least in terms of spacing out these Cartoon Commentary! posts to coincide with the podcasts.   In the first episode we cover a lot of the basic stuff involved with the mini series as well as diving into the first two episodes.  For this column, I'm going to concentrate on that second episode which originally debuted on September 13th, 1983 and was titled Slave of the Cobra Master.



Again, it's hard not to get wrapped up in the massive amount of Cobra branding that was thrown in for this first mini series.  Above is a nice example of some of the background artwork used to illustrate the Cobra temple.  Not only does that snake make for an awesome temple topper, but it's also a conduit helping to direct the energy bursts from the M.A.S.S. device.  Also, it's kind of interesting how intertwined snake imagery was with action entertainment in the 80s.  The cold blooded reptile's use in G.I. Joe is pretty obvious, but it also served as the design for the obviously named Snake Mountain, Skeletor's castle in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.  Then there are the intertwined snakes in Mumm-Ra's headpiece on the Thundercats show, and of course I was a huge fan of both the first Conan movie and Clash of the titans, and the duo of James Earl Jones' Thulsa Doom and Harryhausen's version of Medusa terrified me.   Anyway, it's just a thought…



One of the reoccurring themes in the Joe universe is Cobra Commander's megalomaniacal Caesar complex (written into the Writer's Guide), which is illustrated quite well in the first two cartoon mini series' with the Cobra gladiatorial arena fights.  In the A Real American Hero mini, the fight takes place between two mind-controlled opponents, the captured Duke and the slave giant Ramar.   Again, this is interesting, at least to me, in that it works in fun action, a couple elements of the fantastical, and even a bit of world history, though that last one is a stretch.   Either way, it's fun and again it works to define the character of Duke who never backs down, not even when the odds are stacked against him.



In fact Duke's smarts and tenacity are even admired by Destro.  Cobra Commander and Destro are each controlling one of the combatants (Destro has Duke and CC has Ramar), and in mid battle Destro relinquishes control over Duke knowing that he'll be able to handle Ramar better under his own control.  As a kid I was never all that fond of Duke's character, though a lot of that could be contributed to his bland character design (and granted it's only really bland in comparison to the outlandish Joes that would follow and what made up most of my collection.)  Now that I look back at him I think that his simple (in terms of not being flashy) design works perfect for the type of character.  Just goes to show the differences in the two mindsets...



What's also kind of weird in the Joe universe is that Cobra's infatuation with world domination and wealth often takes the form of an accumulation of gold.  When CC and Destro make a bet on the arena battle the spoils are pieces of gold (which is also what CC uses to pay off the Dreadnoks in the second Joe mini series.)  I wonder if this was a purposeful way to avoid talking about money in the cartoon, like maybe the producers or story editors (Steve Gerber and Buzz Dixon) wanted to avoid as much real world strife as possible.  We also see gold used as the ultimate coveted element (a very fairy tale like quality to the writing) in its use as a way to escape the mind control devices.  When we're introduced to Selena, the save girl with a heart of gold (oh geez, bad turn of phrase I know), she gives Duke a thin stick (think bubble gum stick) of gold that will allow him to shirk the headband's power.  I'm also reminded of an episode of Transformers where there is a pool of gold liquid that when bathed in makes robots invincible to laser fire (great Beachcomber episode to boot.)



When Duke decides it's time to use the gold strip to break the mind control it unfolds in a very odd way.  I was expecting Duke to be free to do what he wants, which is essentially what happens, though it comes in the form of redirecting the energy used to control the headbands into laser like beams that knock the controllers out of Destro and CC's hands.  It's more visually interesting, but it's also one of those weird leaps in logic that the show is famous for.  To be honest, even as an adult I don't mind these leaps.



There's another subtle moment (like in the previous episode where the Baroness in disguise fingers her earring) in the sequence where Selena is helping Duke to escape via the Cobra Viper Glider (one of the few times in this mini series where the writing feels like it's pushing the toys.)  As they're talking his Joe class ring glimmers a couple times.  He eventually gives the ring to her so that she can both remember him and so that he'll remember to come back and save her and the rest of the slaves.  It's also another sequence to show off his lady's man side (by the end of the series he'll have both Selena and Scarlett hanging off him.)



In a weird turn of events, the Joe team rescues the scientist (Dr. Vandemeer) that unwittingly helped Cobra build their M.A.S.S. device.  He helps them to build their own M.A.S.S. device, which is sort of a odd way to combat the original problem on a couple of different levels.  On the one hand it doesn't seem like a likely answer unless the goal is to use their device to steal Cobra's device.  I mean they're matter transference machines, not weapons.   Also, as Jerzy brought up in the Saturday Supercast, it sort of breaks the unspoken rule of using the enemy's weapons against them, a concept highlighted by the plight of Frodo in the Lord of the Rings series.   It points to the idea of corrupting one's self to combat corruption, which is pretty self-defeating in terms of a winning end game strategy.   On the other hand, this conceit opens up the plot of this and the following two episodes as both teams race around the globe in search of the rare catalytic elements that power the M.A.S.S. devices.  It's not just a matter of trying to stop the other side, but scoring these elements for your own team in the process.  It helps set the tone of the series as a whole and it makes the mini visually stunning for all its environments...



The first location explored is the dreaded Sea of Ice in the Arctic Circle where the pink radioactive crystals are located in a cave guarded by Cobra.   I love this sequence because it features some of my favorite Joe team members from the 1st two waves of figures from '82 and '83.  Putting myself back in the 1983-4 mindset, I wasn't all that fond of the basic green fatigue-wearing Joes.   I hadn't read the comics yet, and I wasn't paying attention to the file cards yet (and I think at the time my parents were still giving me figures already out of the packages so I didn't even realize there were file cards to clip), so the characters that stuck out to me were the ones that had interesting visual cues.   First and foremost there was Snake Eyes, who completely decked in black stood out the most of the early Joes.  Then there's Tripwire and Flash, both of which had cool-looking helmets (with the coveted visors), and the grey and red highlights (respectively) to the basic green fatigues that made them aces in my book.  Scarlett has always been a cool character, and for me she fell into that group of figures I never managed to get my grubby hands on, so I wanted her all the more.  And last, but certainly not least, Snow Job, who was one of the first Joe action figures I distinctly remember receiving (right before meeting up with my Dad after he got off work at a local Florida Red Lobster.)  The sense memory of a mound of empty King Crab leg shells acting as a stand-in for a snowy peak that Snow Job could ski across is burned into my memory.

Anyway, it's in this set of scenes that we're first introduced to the Polar Battle Bear snowmobiles, and the evil Cobra Snake Robots…



Animation-wise, the scene when the group of Joes enter the cave has some really nice choice camera angles, not to mention some nice shading and shadows (which always tend to make the art look so much richer.)  As a funny side note, it's kind of odd that Snake Eyes carries a walkie talkie with him seeing that he's practically mute and all.  I will admit that it's been pointed out that walkie talkies do have Morse Code buttons on them, and I realize he can listen in, but it's still kind of oxymoronic.



Something else that caught my eye while watching this episode is the dynamics of telecasting Cobra Commander to the world during one of his maniacal world domination rants.   There are a couple of shots which showcase some of Cobra's finest troopers running the TV camera.  I guess either Cobra has one hell of a cross training media department, or they've spent some time recruiting out of the various A/V clubs in high schools around the country.  It leads to the obvious question, is there a brigade of sanitation troopers roaming the various temples and the Terror Drome in full gear?

Also, even though it isn't really that much of a miraculous bit of precognition on the writer/designers parts, I thought it was kind of cool to see a quick shot of a suburban home with a flat screen the size of a coffee table on the living room wall.  We're pretty much living in that age I guess.  Now where's my personal jetpack and standard issue tan & silver laser rifle?



I've mentioned it a couple times in these past couple of columns already, but I thought it was really interesting that the story editors make it a very clear point in the writer's guide to stay away from using real world U.S. antagonists as enemies in the cartoon.   Instead, the unspoken guideline (I haven't seen it stressed in print) was to show other countries as allies against Cobra. In this first mini series Cobra's second major target of their M.A.S.S. device attack is Russia.  Cobra burgles an entire battalion of their tanks and soldiers, teleporting them to the temple base.   I do have to stress that I thought it was odd that this army didn't put up any fight when they arrived, unlike Duke who practically took on the entire Cobra army by himself twice by this point.



Ron Friedman is the man responsible for the heavy lifting on the writing duties in this mini series (as well as the other three Joe Minis and the G.I. Joe & Transformers movies), and if there is one reoccurring theme that I kind of dig, it's his inhibition when it comes to potentially offing or downplaying beloved characters.  Granted I'm sure these were decissions that the entire writing staff disscussed, but they tend to occur in his contributed episodes.  Of course his most famous coup in this department is killing off Optimus Prime in the Transformers flick, but he also intended to kill of Duke in the Joe Movie (changed after the animation was finalized and the reactions were coming in to Prime buying the farm), he helped Buzz Dixon depose Cobra Commander in the Arise, Serpentor, Arise! mini, and in this episode basically left Snake Eyes for the soon to be eradiated dead.  Honestly, the show hadn't been on long enough to really garner Snake Eyes the "beloved character" status, but it was still a gutsy cliffhanger in my eyes.  I mean, unless you’re James Bond or Ursula Andress in Dr. No, there really isn't any coming back from radiation poisoning so bad your entire body beings to glow.  The "good bye" scene with Scarlett was pretty touching too, with nice shot of Snake Eyes slowly backing up into the radiation cloud.



If the show was every going to be accused of product placement, it's probably in the scenes involving Duke's crazy escape from the Cobra compound.  First Selena insists that the only way out is by stealing a Cobra Viper Glider, which Duke of course does, and then proceeds to go on a wacky trip with a bunch of Cobra troopers in tow.  I say wacky because not long after Duke is airborne, he crashes into a tree, and then falls directly into the waiting cockpit of an idling H.I.S.S. tank.  He then speeds away in the tank, through a nearby swamp where he again crashes into an embankment, and then ends up falling into a pit of quicksand.  It's daring and exciting, but a little bit too Benny Hill for my tastes.

Something interesting I noticed during this chase sequence was another (almost) product placement in the form of the Cobra Water Moccasin.  For a brief second while in the water we see a white Moccasin speed by the frame…



…which is kind of interesting in that the toy hadn't been released yet.   Most everything that ended up in this first mini series, from characters to vehicles, was already available in the 1982-1983 toy line (with some exceptions like the Baroness, the S.H.A.R.C. which will show up in the next episode, and Duke – who was only a mail-away at the time.)  There was also an appearance of a Rattler-like jet which shows up in the fourth part of the mini, but my guess is that wasn't tied in with Hasbro.  So the Moccasin showing up, in a different color no less, seems to point to the idea that the writers/designers of the cartoon had access to upcoming vehicle designs.   Either that or their rendition of the water craft struck a nerve at Hasbro who then put it into production.



Anyway, like I mentioned above, the last we saw of Duke he was all but drowning in a pit of quicksand.  What I love about this sequence, and it's something I never would have thought to watch out for if it hadn't been for Mark Rudolph's description of camera angles and blocking in the original Star Trek show (on an episode of the Art & Story podcast), is how interesting it is when a scene is framed by close-up objects in the foreground.   I love the shot of the two Cobra troopers with their legs framing either side of the screen and Duke breast-deep in quicksand.  Not only is it visually interesting, it gives the scene a menacing tone with the soldiers towering over duke and being so close to the "camera" that viewers get a feeling of being too close to the enemy.  It's a little thing, but it's a nice touch.

What's really weird about this sequence though, and what makes me wonder if there is something missing in this segment of the episode is Dukes sudden memory loss and almost death.   Honestly he seems to be playing possum until the Cobra troopers leave, and in the next scene he's on a gurney being attended by Doc and all of a sudden everything is tense.  If nothing else, why exactly does Duke forget about the whole affair in the Cobra fortress?  It seems like a very weird cliffhanger ending to me.



In the final episode of this mini series there is a segment where Doc is trying to help Duke remember in some sort of sensory deprivation chamber (that looks an awful lot like the bacta tank in the Empire Strikes Back), and his memories are projected onto a screen.  In this sequence we get a glimpse of Duke's childhood and young adult years where he's fighting off bullies and being a football hero.  When we talk about this in the Saturday Supercast Jerzy recalled the fact that this sequence of Duke's younger years was cut on the copy of the official FHE VHS tape for the miniseries.   It points to the idea that there are different versions of the episodes floating around.  I'm pretty positive that there are differences in the original broadcast episodes and the later syndicated ones, if only because as the years go on the restrictions of cutting in commercial time get harsher.  So I'm sure there are a lot of episodes that are missing segments and I have to wonder is Rhino, when they were putting together this mini series DVD might have gotten an edited set of the masters that was missing something.  It's just a thought.

Anyway, this commentary brings us up to date with what we end up talking about in episode 19 of the Saturday Supercast.  Also, we should be posting the follow-up show, episode 20, in which we discuss the next three episodes as well as touching on some of the more modern incarnations of the franchise, namely the new live action film set to debut in August, the Rise of Cobra, as well as the lead up cartoon even that debuted this past spring called G.I. Joe Resolute.  Also, and I'm sure you're tired of hearing me mention this, the season 1.1 DVD set of the original G.I. Joe cartoon (featuring this very episode) hit store shelves yesterday and is current available on Amazon for only $17.  Alright, pimp mode off.

I thought I'd take a second to pimp some more DVD sets that I'm really looking forward to picking up.  As I've mentioned like a million times in the last couple months, Shout! Factory is releasing the complete Transformers and G.I. Joe on DVD in various formats.  For those of us who prefer to buy in installments, there are a couple new releases coming.  Newly announced is the Season 2 part 1 set of Transformers…



…which is set to be released on September 15th.  It's currently available for pre-order for around $27, but if the pricing pans out like the first set then the closer it gets to release I'd expect to see it drop to around $20.  I'm really digging the Devastator vs. the Dinobots cover art on this one, though I could take or leave the re-purposed Optimus & Megatron in the BG.

The other set comes out today!



G.I. Joe season 1.1.  Not only is it immediately available, but it's also dropped in price to a measly $17!  So if you don't have the original mini series on DVD and you want to watch it to bone up on the content of my recent contribution to the Saturday Supercast (where we talk about the 1st Joe mini), then I think it's time to pick up a copy.

Also, apparently in the wake of the demise of BCI Eclipse, it looks like Mill Creek is picking up some of the in limbo cartoon licenses.  On August 25th you'll be able to pick up re-released editions of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon…



You'll be able to pick from either the Complete series edition above or a single disc edition that has the first nine episodes below.



On the one hand I think this is pretty cool as I hate seeing 80s cartoons go out of print on DVD.   Not only does the after market price get ridiculous, but it keeps new generations of fans from the shows.  Granted, I'm sure most kids these days wouldn't respond to 80s cartoons like a lot of us did back in the day, but it's a possibility that I'd like to think is out there.  Of course, the downside here is that Mill Creek doesn't exactly have a great track record of quality releases on DVD.  Not the properties they release, but the actual video/audio quality.  They're the guys who churn out those 50 movie box sets (as well as 250!) with tons of public domain material, or the 150 PD cartoon sets that clog up Wal-mart dump bins.   They're also responsible for those recent Teddy Ruxpin sets that seem to have gone straight to the dump bins (you can get the entire 65 episode run on Amazon for $10 new.)  I picked up one of those sets and the quality was decent enough to watch but it left a little to be desired.

Luckily the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon was already digitally preserved by BCI, so hopefully the transfer will be good.  Of course, Mill Creek, specializing in discount DVDs, has condensed BCI's 5 disc set onto 3 discs for the new complete series release.   I'm also betting that any of the BCI special features will not be ported over.  I do like some aspects of the new cover art. I don’t like that they've massacred the original BCI art with a horrible photoshop gone mad look, but they did add some nice action to the poses and included Venger.  But I have to hand it to them; the set is available for pre-order for only $13!  That is a steal and a half, especially if the video compression doesn't matter as much to you.

Mill Creek is also set to release the 2002 Mike Young Productions He-Man cartoon in a very similar format to the D&D sets.  One will be a complete series, and another the first 9 episodes.  I'm wondering if any of the Filmation titles might be coming soon after (like the original He-Man cartoon which is currently going out of print, as well as other OOP titles such as Ghostbusters, She-Ra, Bravestarr, Defenders of the Earth and the Groovie Goolies.)  It would be cool to see them kept in print, even in lower quality editions.

Anyway, if the stars align correctly, we (Jerzy Drozd, Kevin Cross and I) should be releasing the second half of the G.I. Joe episode of the Saturday Supercast later this week (you can snag the first part at Sugary Serials, or download it here, episode 19.)  I'm also going to post another Cartoon Commentary! featuring the second episode of the original G.I. Joe mini series, Slave of the Cobra Master.

I'm not usually one for celebrating my birthday all that much, unless I could go back in time and relive a true Showbiz pizza party with great arcade games, awesome animatronic shows and skee ball.  Well you can still get the skee ball at Chuck-E-Cheese, but the rest is really lacking.  So another year tacked on and all that hoopla.  My wife and I usually have an understanding when it comes to birthdays and Christmas, no presents except maybe a meal out.  This year though, the wife surprised me with something incredibly awesome.  She commissioned an illustration from our friend Mark Rudolph mixing two of my favorite things, monsters and cephalopods!



I tend to not get all that outwardly excited most of the time, so I hope my wife saw through that to noticed how surprised and happy I was while opening the package.   Starring up at me was this loveable horror below…



I mean hutchie motchie!   Look at this guy!  There was even a very nice color print to boot, which really makes the illustration pop.   Carrie and I both love Mark's style, especially when it comes to monster/creature design, and we both think this piece is just fan-freaking-tastic…



The only drawback is that my wife has thrown down the gauntlet in terms of present giving and it's going to have to put me on my toes to think of something this rad.   I suppose that the best kind of drawback though.  We can't wait to get this little fella framed and put up somewhere prominently displayed.

While I'm heaping praise at Mark's feet, I should take this opportunity to point any readers of this site to his work.  You can find out most everything you'd need to know at his site CV Comics.com.   I believe he's open for commissions, which based on the beauty above I'd highly recommend.

He's also one half of the dynamic duo of the Art & Story podcast, which recently 4 new weekly shows called…



The Extreme shows are an extension of the weekly show featuring a nice fly-on-the-wall look at their daily studio activities, as well as scintillating conversation on subject ranging the gamut from the 90s era Zubas/Skids baggy pants fashions to how they'd like their corpses to be disposed of (I vote for Mark's Hunter Thompson-esque shot-out-of-a-cannon request.)  The extreme show is perfect if you’re not into a deconstruction of comics and illustration work, as it's just a great listen.

Mark is also the co-host of the Requiem podcast featuring an NPR-style look at metal music…



You can also find his comic work at Sugary Serials, in particular on the Curse of the Pharaohs story and my favorite from the anthology Switch Runners (which I've mentioned before.)

There sure has been a lot of radio silence coming out of Branded this year.  Sheesh.  I have been working on a project that I'll hopefully be able to talk about soon, but in the meantime I thought I'd throw out an update on two of my favorite 80s cartoons getting the royal treatment on DVD, G.I. Joe and Transformers.  I've mentioned recently about Shout! Factory acquiring the rights to release a bunch of Hasbro owned properties and how excited I am about finally getting affordable releases of my two favorite cartoons.  This whole process has been rather transparent on Shout!'s end, with Brian Ward inviting fan input on both shows during the DVD production via the company's community forums (Transformers thread & G.I. Joe thread.)  Though I'm not nearly as well versed in the minutia of the cartoons, knowing the various differences in broadcast versions vs. the original masters, all the little sound and picture errors, etc., I'm glad there is a community of dedicated fans who are and that, that knowledge base was tapped in the creation of these new DVDs.

   

Well, we've finally gotten around to seeing the fruit of Shout! Factory's labors with the Transformers season 1 set finally hitting store shelves this past week (I'm still eagerly awaiting my copy from Amazon as I type this.)   The season 1.1 set of the G.I. Joe cartoon is just around the corner as well, which should be available for purchase on July 21st.

Well, one of the aspects of this whole push to re-release these shows is that Shout! Really is concerned with "getting it right" so to speak, and they've taken a cue (I believe) from Time Life's Complete Real Ghostbusters set, in that in tandem with the announcement of the season 1 DVDs they've also put the wheels in motion on two complete series sets for both shows.   Unlike Time Life (which has only released the individual season 1 set of the GB cartoon), they've also committed to releasing the full run of each series in separate individual sets, giving the casual fan, the strapped-for-cash fan, and the uber fan buying options that best suit their needs.

So on July 13th you'll be able to pick up the complete Transformers G1 series on DVD in a very nice set that really looks like it's going to outshine the original Rhino releases in terms of packaging and special features…



Besides being packaged in a slipcase designed to look like and open like the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, there's also a 60-page book, a bunch of archival toy commercials and PSAs, galleries featuring concept and fan art, as well as a couple of Autobot and Decpticon magnets.  The set also includes five featurettes on the series (including two which are unique to the complete series set, an interview with Bob Budiansky, and a cast reunion with Jack Angel (Ramjet), Michael Bell (Prowl), Gregg, Berger (Grimlock), Aurthur Burghardt (Devastator), Corey Burton (Spike Witwicky), Richard Gautier (Rodimus Prime), Neil Ross (Slag), Frank Welker (Megatron).)  The complete set clocks in at 16 discs (with what appears to be alternate disc art from the individual releases) with all 98 episodes for $140 (shipping included) and is available for preorder.  Click the image below for a nice enbiggened version…



The set that I'm really looking forward to is the Complete G.I. Joe seeing as Rhino lost the rights before completing the original run of DVDs back in the early 2000's.  This will be the first time that a good chunk of the series will be released on DVD, and even though I was skeptical of what sounded like a boring "footlocker" package, I’m really impressed with the presentation…



This set is also available for pre-order ($145, shipping included) and will be released on July 22nd.   Click the image below for a nice enbiggened version…



Again, this set comes with a lot of special features including a 60-page book, a 1gb dog tag shaped USB flash drive (which includes two silent comics, which I'm assuming are akin to CBZ versions of the comics), all the "Knowing is half the battle" PSAs, 25 archival toy commercials (though it looks like the Marvel Comics commercials missed the cut, which is a shame since they were the origin of the animated series), and a couple of rub-on tattos.  Also included are 8 featurettes, again including two which are exclusive to this set (a conversation with Larry Hama and a voice cast reunion featureing: Jack Angel (Wet Suit), Michael Bell (Duke), Gregg Berger (Spirit), Arthur Burghardt (Destro), Corey Burton (Tomax), Richard Gautier (Serpentor), Neil Ross (Shipwreck), B.J. Ward (Scarlett).)  I'm surprised Frank Welker didn't sit in on this one as well seeing as he shows up for the Transformers session and voiced Wild Bill.

I'm probably going to end up picking up the complete series for G.I. Joe if for nothing else than aesthetic reasons as I’m a huge fan of the original toy packaging artwork which is used exclusively in this set for the disc art.  I guess I'm just goofy that way.  Besides, knowing my luck something will keep the full run of individual sets from being released again and I don't want to miss out on any of the episodes this time around.  Also, both sets will be available for purchase at San Diego comic con this year, if you're attending and can afford it.  If nothing else, I hope that these sets move a bunch of units as I've love to see enough profit generated so that Shout! Might consider licensing and releasing some of the other Sunbow shows that Hasbro recently re-attained the rights to including Jem, the Visionaries and the Inhumanoids.  Hell, I'd also be happy if some of that cash could go to pushing second releases of some of the other 80s cartoon properties that Shout! Already holds like C.O.P.S. and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, but that seems like a pipe dream.

I've got a special treat this week in the form of another reader supplied installment of Peel Here.   I actually have a couple of these in the hopper, but this one was practically written for me so it's hitting first.  These stickers come from the personal collection of Jesse Guiher, a freelance artist & graphic designer (you can find out more at his site, Tigertailart.com.)  Jesse's collection is pretty cool, and it's housed in a pretty sweet Lazer Blazers sticker binder.   Anyway, I'll let Jesse speak for his own collection (which will be italicized and I'll pipe in here and there to give my thoughts, in bold, as well…)

It is a Lazer Blazer album, but I never put the actual blazer stickers in it (never really liked them even as a kid they seemed to lack the 3D element they were supposed to have).  I am a guy, but I have always liked fantasy stuff and never really liked the other lazer blazer albums that were at my local Kmart (though I would have killed for the Gremlins one) so I got the Unicorn one.  Never thought it would be a problem until I was around the other guys...needless to say I never showed it to anyone else again it was my secret sticker album from that point on.



Since I missed out on the whole Lazer Blazer phenomenon to begin with I don't have any of the baggage.   I do have to say that the thought of a Gremlins themed sticker album would be the bee's knees though…

The very prevalent pink stickers are from a poster calendar kit that I had to go around door to door selling to raise money for our school in the 80s (plus the obligatory awesome thick double candy bars with almonds).  You will also notice quite a few praying hands and other little religious stickers.  These are from vacation bible school; you had to save up points by memorizing memory verses from the bible to get the "cool" stickers and they gave away these dumb little religious ones for everything else... well it was a sticker what else was I supposed to do with it?  You don't waste stickers... so to make them "cool" I put them in upside down, like the cross in "The Exorcist" (yes I am aware of how stupid this sounds now but I was kid... its kid logic what do you want?).



I really dig the Lisa Frank-esque dancing bears spelling out Jesse's name on the inside front cover of the collection.

My favorite ones on here have always been the foil ice cream cones, there were a few other colors like pink/red but I am not sure what I did with them.  So far, aside from that there are a lot of valentines stickers from a hallmark pack and lots of scratch n sniff which were probably my favorite kind of sticker.  You can even see a Texas Ruby Red sticker I got off a grapefruit (hey it looked cool and it is a sticker... it counts right?)



The grapefruit sticker is the perfect example of how there are no rules to sticker collecting as a kid.  Like I've mentioned in past Peel Here columns, I wasn't above picking the descriptive stickers off of packages of meat in the deli section of the grocery store, as well as any and all produce stickers I could acquire.  In fact, just a few years ago I swiped an extra Great Pumpkin themes produce sticker off of a Halloween carving pumpkin because it looked so cool.   I also really dig the foil robot and various scratch-n-sniff stickers on this page (that salami one must smell something awful.)  The artwork on the vanilla sticker (in the bottom right) reminds me of MAD magazine style art (of which we'll see a bit more of towards the end of the collection.)   I'm also fond of the monster valentines (which reminds me of these stickers I posted about a little while ago…)

Ah yes, Donkey Kong... the obsession that has permeated my life with old video games started with playing Donkey Kong on a family trip in a heat plastered 7-11.  Naturally I bought the card packs for both Donkey Kong and Pac-Man when they came out.  The cola scratch n sniff here was probably my favorite it really did (and still sorta does) smell like cola.  I love the foil embossed castle and hot air balloon, but they have always been a pain to maintain: they keep coming undone off the page.  The puffy highway signs on this page are glow in the dark (my second favorite type of sticker), but they were cheaply made and easily fell apart as can be witnessed by the two that fell off the page.  Grimace and Sam the Olympic Eagle sticker on the next page came from Mcdonalds of course; my dad used to work as a manager at our local Mcd's in the 80s and I ended up with all kinds of bizarre happy meal leftovers.  I still wish I could track down the cool Atari giveaway scratch tickets they had, or even better one of the promotion posters for the giveaway.  That summer of desperately scratching off tickets (and finding out I wouldn’t be eligible to win anyways due to pops working there) is indelibly etched in my memory.



I love the Atari sticker card sets that came out in the early 80s (like these Donkey Kong stickers.)  Though I love my Topps sticker cards, I really love the idea of sheets of random themed stickers you could get in wax packs.  Just puts a new collectible spin on sticker trading and it provides a ton of stickers so you don't have to be so choose-y when deciding to stick them (if you're not planning on putting 'em all in a sticker book that is.)  Also, I have to second the love for the Mello Smello cola can sticker.  I really dig these over-sized scratch-n-sniffs.

More Donkey Kong, more Valentines, more scratch n sniff (plus a few homemade stickers, one of which is an ice cream soda).  I used to make homemade stickers by looping tape for the backs and sticking them down to wax paper, then selling them to my fellow classmates.  I got busted when my booming business branched out to selling pom poms for shoelaces and pieces of candy from packages, which ended with a trip to the principal's office.  I personally really like the bright goofy space theme stickers here which were from a sheet package.



Honestly, I have to say that was pretty inventive of Jesse to make his own stickers back in the day.   I never thought to do that.  Oh and I totally feel your pain on getting busted for selling stuff at school.  I was also caught with a baggie full of individually wrapped Atomic Fireballs which I used to sell for a quarter a pop to sugar starved classmates.  Oh and those spaceship/alien stickers have a really nice Yellow Submarine vibe to 'em.

Some really cool foil prismatics of amusement park stuff (another life long obsession). More scratch n sniffs (these came on sheets that were so very oddly cut: there was no border they just cut a ling directly around each sticker so the entire sheet was completely used.  Each of these scratch 'n sniffs came to a sheet with one scent, and I think 2 different sheets to a pack.  My favorite stickers of all time are on this page: the glow in the dark ghost stickers I found at Kmart on the turn rack next to the lazer blazers.  These things still glow like a champ when exposed to light and are very thick and durable, to my older graphic designer eyes I think they were silk screened onto laminated glow plastic.  They were more pricey than the other stickers, but I have always loved Halloween themed stuff and just had to have them.



The please-post-bills-here! sticker is from one of the MAD card sets (as is the Don Martin sticker on the following page).  I remember thinking that these cats were unusually freaky looking, especially the orange one and the one with the children's block (K is for "Kill").



Care Bears... everyone was into them to one degree or another, they do have a certain charm even now but seem sickeningly sweet as well.  I still love these round fantasy stickers, I got them off a roll at Hallmark when they used to have this huge aisle of sticker rolls and you could go in with pocket change and get half a dozen.  I think that is the defining moment of when I fell in love with stickers: when I first went into the mall Hallmark and saw that aisle, that along with comic books and collector cards probably are what set me on my current path of illustration/graphic design.



Super grape-ity scratch n sniffs, these grape snow cones are still very powerful smelling even now.  The original Kmart sticker is still on here in the upper right, it seemed strange to me to take off a sticker, even a price sticker in a sticker book so I left it on.





…and there you have a tour down a piece of my childhood, I believe I got this album around 1983, or 1984. –Jesse

Well, thanks for sharing those Jesse. I always love getting a chance to take a look at other childhood sticker collections, in particular what stickers were deemed worthy of holding onto and in what order they're placed in the collection.

Anyway, until next time…

I can't believe it took me 83 columns on sticker collecting to get around to posting some Knight Rider stickers.   I suppose the prowess of Hasselhoff does not compel me enough.  That's alright, I always used to watch the show for K.I.T.T. anyway.  Actually, I had a hard time finding any affordable Knight Rider stickers seeing as the Hoff is so ever-presently kitsch that his smiling mug will always jack up the value of KR memorabilia.  Recently while scanning eBay for the much coveted Color-Me Sticker sets, I ran across a nice little lot of KR stickers that was just too good to pass up.

Firs up is this sheet of foil K.I.T.T. stickers that didn't have a company name attached from 1982…



These feel a whole heck of a lot like the kind of kid's party favor stickers that come in packs of 20, and are usually found (if not in a place like Party City) in discount dollar stores.  Honestly, though the scan didn't come out all that well (an unfortunate side effect of the awesome luminescent foilosity of the sheet), I really like these.   In particular I like that they're drawings (though they do border on clip art), and that there's a distinct lack of the Hoff, which I take as a bold (yet most likely a licensing side-stepping and money saving) decision.  Anyway, I didn't find a lot of foil stickers to share on the site in general (except for the Lazer Blazers which really don't count) so this fills that gap nicely.

Next up we have yet another example of the Gordy International/Larami/Etc. puffy sticker collector sets that featured a big sheet of stickers as well as a nifty little collecting book to boot (this one released by Gordy in 1984.)



There's not a whole lot you can get wrong in a set like this as the show mainly featured Hasselhoff and K.I.T.T., which is reflected in the choice of screen shots from the series.  There's a nice one of the show's intro title screen (which is an image I always loved of Michael and K.I.T.T. racing across the desert at sunset), and you even get a little bit of Edward Mulhare as Devon.  My only gripe would have to be a distinct lack of Patricia McPherson's Bonnie, but that's just coming from my love of the strong female sidekicks in late 70s, early 80s TV (even the annoying ones like the reporter from the A-Team's first season.)  Also, I love the sweet action shot of Michael on the pay phone at the bottom of the sheet.   Riveting imagery!



The set comes with the requisite laminated sticker collecting album, which now that I'm thinking about them, they'd make a nice collection in and of them selves.  I kind of which I'd kept the others that I managed to find.  Ah well…





Also, like the A-Team and Riptide sticker sets, the back of the packaging was reserved for a huge piece of line work that the kids were encouraged to color, and again, this line work forms the basis of the imagery in the next KR sticker set I'm about to talk a little bit about…



Unfortunately, the line work as it is, is sort of hard to color.   Damn that slick Michael Knight and his black pants, black leather jacket and black car!

As I mentioned, the artwork was cannibalized for the 1982 (though I'll bet it actually came out in '84) Dianmond Toymakers Knight Rider Color-Me sticker set…



I managed to get a decently clear shot of the packaging out of my new camera, so we can now see the included semi-mechanical crayon pencil (in all its chocolate scented glory!)  Again, the packaging on these is a little bootleg-esque, thought he KR set fares much better than the A-Team set from last week…



Again, much like the back of the packaging on the album & sticker set above, there's not a whole heck of a lot to color here, and even if you did want to color K.I.T.T. with the included crayons, you'd have to settle for blue or purple.  That's alright as I think a black crayon would end up looking rather absurd anyway turning the drawings into very boring silhouettes.

Since it's been about 4 months since I've posted a Peel Here sticker column I figure it's about time for a new one.  Just over two years ago I mentioned a set of stickers called Color Me Stickers that I was really looking forward to sharing on the site, but I just couldn't find an affordable example.   I've since rectified this, and as an addendum to that early Peel Here column I present some of the oddest stickers yet, the 1983 A-Team Color Me Sticker set from Diamond Toymakers…



This set, which is similar to the Craft Master Stain-A-Sticker sets that I also talked about a couple years ago, is basically like one of those gaudy black felt color-you-own-poster sets that you can usually find in discount drug stores on the toy aisle.  The stickers themselves are glorified puffy stickers with a fuzzy felt-like finish applied, and an included set of crayons to color the stickers as you saw fit.   I'm assuming that the patented fuzzy finish is included to help the crayon colors take to the sticker's surface easier, but I bet it ends up looking kind of funky…



Unfortunately the scanner had a hard time getting a pristine clear image of the stickers because of said fuzzy finish, but you get the idea.  On the one hand, I'm surprised that I haven't seen more of these types of craft sticker sets when scouring ebay for Peel Here content, but on the other, I can totally see how parents would have hated this sort of thing.  Not only will the stickers end up potentially stuck all over the house, but you're also giving a kid a set of crayons to color them, the walls, and any other surface that needs a little splash of color.  I suppose it's easier to focus a child attention at coloring inside a coloring book, and giving them a little bit more of a free rein with coloring stickers.

All in all I like the balance of the chosen images on the sheet of stickers, just Mr. T heavy enough to please the fans, but not neglecting the rest of the cast, including their awesome battle van.  What I found a little weird was that the artwork on these stickers was lifted from the packaging on another company's set of A-Team stickers!  Released in the same year by Larami was a set of puffy stickers and a collecting book that came packaged together and on the back of that package was a picture that the company encouraged kids to color, which I thought was an interesting way of using up a bunch of free space.   I wonder if they ever realized that Diamond Toymakers swiped these drawings for their own sticker products?!?  Heck, it might just be the same company, but judging from the bootleg quality of the packaging on the Diamond Color Me stickers, I have to assume their not related.   Ah well, all's fair in love and TV show merchandising I guess.

I ended up fudging the bucket on getting a picture of the included crayons as I have a new digital camera and I haven't quite figured it out yet.  All the pictures I've taken are just slightly blurry, enough so that it can bring on a small headache trying to focus on the image, so I thought I'd spare you pain.   Basically the crayon set is one of those all in one plastic pencil deals, much like the analog mechanical pencils that were huge in the 80s (the ones that had about ten little chunks of lead mounted on small pieces of white plastic that filled the barrel of the pencil and were popped out the front when they were mostly gone, and then reinserted into the back to push a new lead forward.)  The crayons, like the package states, are chocolate-scented, and have aged surprisingly well.  I'm still on the fence about the potentiality of a chocolate-scented Mr. T sticker being a bit racist, but it's a weird enough concept that I'll let it slide.



Diamond Toymakers also brought us a bevy of other Color Me Sticker sets as you can see from the package above, including various Jim Henson brands as well as Knight Rider (which I've also secured for the next Peel Here column), and my all new coveted sticker item, Blue Thunder!  I do love me some awesome attack helicopters, and it makes me wonder why Diamond chose to go after the rights to that R-rated flick instead of its TV friendly counterpart Airwolf.

I've been on a John C. Reilly kick lately, and this past week I sat down and watched the flick The Promotion (written and directed by Steve Conrad.)  I wasn't expecting to really connect with the film at all as it's sort of set up with a pretty standard comedy plot and stars Seann William Scott (he of Stiffler fame from the American Pie movies) who I'm not all that enamored with.  Honestly, I was expecting to enjoy Reilly's performance, a few jokes here and there and that's about it.



Part my initial disinterest was that the flick seemed to be drawing from the same cultural ennui of flicks like Waiting, Office Space and more importantly Clerks.  I experienced Clerks at the perfect age, 19, right smack dab in the middle of my initial career as a grocery store stock clerk and budding film buff, and connected with it in a very visceral way.  For my money Kevin Smith totally captured what life was life like for a 20-something pop culture nerd working in retail, whittling away the hours with humor as the world (customers, supervisors, family, etc.) slowly sucked away at your soul.  Well, with a lot of genres (sub-genres, sub-categories, what-have-you) it seems like there are one or two films that do a great job of addressing the particular subject matter, and thereafter other flicks just seem to be watered down imitations or parodies.  For me, in the minimum wage lackey category of comedy films, Clerks stands head and shoulders above the rest (with a nice honorable mention to Office Space, even though it deals more with corporate misery), and after watching flicks like Waiting or Kill the Man I was getting kind of tired of the genre.  When I saw the trailer for the Promotion, I was expecting just more of the same.

Actually, I think part of my disinterest lies simply with the fact that I've moved on from that time and place in my life.  I'm over ten years older, working a slightly more rewarding office job (I still emotionally connect to Office Space just fine thank you), and I'm less interested in wallowing in sarcastic hopelessness, preferring a bit more upbeat fare (in general, not as a rule.)  Again, watching the trailer for the Promotion, which revolves around two grocery store assistant managers vying for the coveted store manager position at a new location, I was expecting to be less than engaged by the plot.

For the first half of the film everything was going exactly as I figured.  I was really enjoying John C. Reilly's Richard Wehlner, there were a couple of really funny jokes (in particular a handful about an annoying banjo teacher/gay dominatrix type), and a few surprising cameos (in particular by Jason Bateman and Bobby Cannavale.)  I was actually a little surprised that Seann William Scott didn't bug me all that much (something I also noticed in the flick Southland Tales), though there wasn't anything particularly engaging about him either.  Then, as the rivalry between Reilly and Scott started to heat up a bit I found myself wanting the film to side-step the clichéd plot (where one of the two would take on the role of the villain and you’d start rooting for the other by proxy) and veer into more uncharted territory.  The weird thing is that it did.

I as mentioned before, the film stars Scott as Doug Stauber, who is an assistant manager at a grocery store chain located in Chicago, and along with his wife (played by Jenna Fischer) is just trying to make a go of life in middle class America.  Figuring on being the shoo-in for the Store Manager position at a new location under construction, the couple decides to take a chance on buying their first house.  At the same time, Canadian transplant Richard Wehlner (Reilly) (and his family, including his Scottish wife played by Lili Taylor), also an assistant manager (though for a chain of Canadian sister stores), and a recovering drug addict, transfers to Chicago putting Stauber's "shoo-in" status in jeopardy.  As the bigwigs descend on the store to check up on Doug and Richard, each end up dealing with their own demons, be it a gang making life on parking lot duty hell, the possibility of slipping back into depression, alcohol and drugs, or their need to get 'promoted' in order to grab a hold on their life.

Though the film is mainly a comedy, it manages to avoid some of the more obvious or gratuitous plot machinations, and pretty much plays the jokes in a subtle manner (even the more outrageous humor isn't in your face.)  The flick manages to balance the gags with plenty of introspection and does a surprisingly amazing job at illustrating a more real-life struggle for success.  This is what kills me about most movies where the characters are always shooting for the stars, where success is defined only by achieving what in the long run only a very few people can.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for striving for greatness, but I'm also content in not shooting myself into the cosmos.  Becoming an amazing success is wonderful, unless the trip there and beyond is horrible.  Anyway, about halfway into the film I started hoping for a particular outcome, and was surprised when it occurred.  Where Clerks deals with the grind of working a Middle American job with sarcasm, apathy and slack, The Promotion deals in hope, duty, and a positive work ethic.  It's the other side of the coin, and sort of the next logical step after a film like Clerks (which is sort of where Smith was going with Clerks II, just without the goofy dance sequences, inexcusably ignorant fanboys, and donkey sex.)

During this past Halloween season the wife and I were browsing around some of the outlet stores in North Georgia and I had another one of those lightening strike nostalgic moments while in an antique shop.  Sitting on top of a stack of old records was a copy of Scooby Doo and the Mystery of the Rider Without a Head record and storybook issued by Peter Pan records back in 1977. 

I've mentioned this feeling before, but it's my favorite sort of nostalgia moment, the kind when I can't believe I forget whatever it is that made me slap myself upside the head with disbelief.  There are plenty of these bits of pop culture flotsam and jetsam that I come across that will put a smile on my face or make me stop for a second and say "Huh", but it's really a great an rare feeling when I feel like a part of me has been lost and is there sitting in front of me again.



This particular book must have been a hand-me-down from my sister as I was born the same year it was released and probably wouldn't have used or appreciated it until I was five or six.  I'm also not sure how often I actually listened to the record as I didn't recall much when I listened to it recently…



(You can listen to the record at the great read-along site, the Secret Cavern of Read-Along Treasures.)

What really grabbed me when I found this in the antique shop, and what I really remember pouring over as a kid is the interior artwork.  Unfortunately the artist on this particular book wasn't credited, and I have a feeling it's because it was more of a quickie in-house art department rush job as opposed to shopping the work out to freelance talent.



Honestly, looking back at this stuff so many years later I have to say that I'm a bit underwhelmed at the quality.  Actually it's pretty sloppy in a lot of places, smacking of a bad tracing job.  The line work is very stiff with almost no grace or variance to the line width and weight, but even for all of this, I still love it.  It makes me feel like I'm six years old again…





My favorite bit in the book is the Rider Without a Head, not only because of the monster-esque subject matter, but because the character is rendered with the most detail and attention throughout.  In fact, the stiff art style paired with the watercolor in the book reminded me of the work of one of my favorite artists, Quinton Hoover.  When I started playing the Magic: the Gathering collectable card game back in the mid 90s, Hoover artwork was the one that really stood out and spoke to me.  I'm a big fan of the exacting lines and the colored pencil & watercolor work in the color.  It's the essence of comic book art, minus the thick black shadowing.  There's something in this type of clean line work that makes me think of cartoons or the type of simple effective illustration used in product packaging.



Even though the artwork in the Scooby Doo book isn't nearly as elegant as Quniton Hoover's work (example of which you can see here and here), it makes me wonder if spending hours pouring over the book helped to predispose me to enjoying this sort of clean style (though obviously there were the hundreds of hours of cartoon watching and comic book reading that didn't hurt.)  Looking at the pieces above and below, I really do see a close connection to Hoover's style, so much so that I would have to say that there is some sort of connection (as tenuous as it seems.)  At the end of the day it's another piece of the puzzle at least.



On a side note, I thought it was interesting how on-model the above image of Scooby is compared to the art in the rest of the book.  You see this exact same pose repeated in the final image in the book, again leading me to think that a good bit of the artwork was traced from other existing Scooby Doo work.











Though I had a handful of other read-along storybook and record sets (namely Gremlins, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the various weird Star Wars exopanded universe books like Planet of the Hoojibs), I don't remember if I had any others released by Peter Pan Records.  I seem to remember the company character icon pretty well though.  I wonder if it was from pouring over this Scooby Doo book so many times?

There are a ton of reasons why I'm a nerd/dork/geek/what-the-fuck-ever, but if I had to pick one that exemplified this blog, it would probably have to be the word document file that I've been working on for the past four years that I call "the list."  What is on this list you probably aren't asking?  Well I'll tell you.  It's a list of every film I've ever seen.  Not so dorky you say?  Well it's also annotated.

Over the course of the past four years I've spent a good bit of my spare time reading over IMDB lists, complete video and DVD release guides, and any other list of films I could find to compile a list of everything I've ever seen, film-wise.  I was pretty proud of myself at first because this sprang out of boredom at work as I tried to think of some project that would take a long time, and when I decided to draw up the list, I figured that I'd never finish it.  I have seen quite a few movies, but the thing that I felt was going to be the biggest stumbling block was finding thorough lists of flicks.  See most of the lists and guides I was reading were either yearly best-of's, or limited to what has been released either on video or DVD, and even then these weren't exhaustive as they leaned toward more popular fare.  So between these, 6 million Google searches, and my collection of movie ticket stubs that I started collecting about 20 years ago I managed to put together a pretty exhaustive list.

Is anyone still reading this?  God bless your inexhaustive patience and limit for boredom if you are.  So were there any stipulations to what could and couldn't find a home on the list?  There sure were.  First off, I had to feel like I remembered a decent amount of the plot in order for the flick to make it on the list.  If I remembered the title but couldn't remember the plot, I nixed it.  Second, and this is the super stupid anal part of this list considering I'm the only person who will ever see it besides what ever estate lawyer lackey is forced to read through it upon my death, I had to feel like I watched the flick from beginning to end.  So anything that I've seen edited on TV didn't make the list either.

So what are these annotations you probably aren't asking about?  Well, once I finished the general list it didn't seem quite as cool as I had hoped.  I did mention that I was a dork right?  So in order to make the list cooler than G. Gordon Liddy the night before the Watergate scandal broke, I decided to run through the list and mark each movie with some code.  First, each flick was marked to show who (out of my circle of friends and family) that I saw the flick with.  Then I marked it as to whether or not I saw it in the theater.  Then whether or not I owned it.  Then I figured I'd try and mark the approximate number of times I could remember watching it.  This list was really starting to take shape now.  I had to make a key for the various notations.  As a coupe de grace, I decided to highlight all the flicks that I wanted to own on DVD, and then whether or not they were available on DVD, so now the list was all colorful as well.

Outside of feeling like the biggest anal-list-retentive geek on the planet, I felt like all the time and effort I put into the this was well worth the, well, effort, if for nothing else, than for giving me fodder for other boredom relieving activities like "count the seconds".  Have you ever found yourself on the toilet with a calculator so bored that you decided to mathematically deduce the total number of seconds you've been alive, or the approximate number of breaths you've taken, or the possible number of times you've pooped in your life?  Liar, I saw you doing it.  Wil Wheaton has done it.  Well, he wasn't on the toilet, but that's neither here nor there.  Anyway, this list has a ton of statistics fodder for crap like this, from the approximate proportion of my life I've spent watching movies, to the ratio of films seen with each of my friends, and who I am more likely to see a flick with.  Last warning, I mentioned I was a dork, okay, so stop screaming at me.

One thing I'd like to do it to be able to compare this list to someone else's like another movie buff that's seen a ton of movies.  I mean, even though the list took four years to finish and refine, at the end of the day there are only 1950 films on it. Is that a lot?  Dunno.  Doesn't look like a lot, but then it felt like a lot when I set out to make it.  I think I might need therapy...

Wow, when the heck did the middle of November jump in our laps?!?  Mentally, I'm still back in late August trying to figure out how to not go stark raving mad because of all the changes at work.  Sheesh.  I'm totally neglecting the internet right now (actually it feels like I've been out of the game so to speak since the start of the year.)  But I'm not writing to complain about my silly life woes, no I'm back to get into a fun head-space, and what better way to do this than by cracking open a bootleg copy of one of my favorite all time movies, the 1986 BMX cult classic RAD.

Growing up in the 80s I had a chance to catch the insane home video boom right from the beginning, what with all of the mom & pop rental shops opening and the initial flood of movie titles on VHS and Beta.  My family was a late adopter in terms of getting our own VCR, so instead we'd rent one every other weekend from a little store tucked in a corner of a Gooding's shopping center down the street from us.  As a kid I was a creature of habit when it came to renting movies, not only because I loved watching the same flicks over and over, but also because there were only a handful of titles that I was interested in packed into that tiny rental store.  I remember that the store was divided pretty evenly between Beta and VHS, and the little old couple that owned it only ordered the flicks in one format or the other.  For some reason my parents only ever really wanted to rent a VHS player, so I was severely restricted in terms of titles to rent.  Usually it was a choice between three or four movies, Red Dawn, War Games, SpaceCamp, and RAD, and for some reason the flick that I was always choosing was RAD.   It was also around this time that I realized just how much VHS tapes used to cost back in the day.  I think on my sixth or seventh rental I got up the courage to ask my mom for a copy of the movie for Christmas, so we asked the rental store owners how much a copy cost. ;'When they told us that a new copy of the movie would run about $110, both my and my mother's jaws hit the floor.  Owning VHS was apparently only for the very, very rich in 1986 (well actually it was aimed at store owners for rentals as the industry really hadn't caught a whiff of just how much people wanted to own copies of films.)

So I never got a copy of RAD on VHS, and later on when I starting building my own library of films, I was cheated again as RAD has never been officially released on DVD.   I had to resort to picking up a bootleg copy on ebay, which was just a crappy port of an old VHS rental ripped and burned to disc.  My copy did come with a nice bonus disc though, which included the majority of the RAD soundtrack songs.

The flick begins with the very iconic Tri-Star opening (with the Pegasus running kitty corner into the screen and then leaping over the logo), something that I associate with plenty of Saturday afternoons spent glued to the TV during movie marathons.



Anyway, I thought I'd sort of go through the movie chronologically and talk about the stuff I find interesting.  RAD is part of an unofficial trilogy of flicks in the 80s that touch on the 3 main popular extreme (for lack of a better term) sports of the decade (skate boarding, which was covered by the movie Thrasin', surfing covered in the seriously underrated flick North Shore, and BMX.)  Though there were a couple other BMX movies in the 80s (namely the Aussie flick BMX Bandits, which was more about escaping murderous thieves than BMX), none were as cool to me as RAD.  The opening features a plethora of professional BMXers free-styling over the credits, set to the rocking Jon Farnham tune, Break the Ice (which deserves to be held up with other 80s triumphant movie rock ballads like Rock Until You Drop from Monster Squad, and You're the Best from Karate Kid.)



The flick was produced by Jack Schwartzman, the husband of one of the film's stars, Talia Shire (and father of Wes Anderson regular Jason Schwartzman.)  It was directed by Hal Needham, the guy responsible for many of the goofy Burt Reynolds car-centric comedies of the late 70s and early 80s (like Smokey and the Bandit and the Cannonball Run series), so you know that he can handle the fast paced action of RAD.

I think it was during this credit sequence that I got the most jazzed while watching the flick.  The pro BMX riders doing all sorts of stunts (which I can only hazard a guess to what the names are by using the internets) would always get me in the mood to go outside and try them myself.  Trouble was that I'm horribly uncoordinated when it comes to most physical activities, not to mention that I'm deathly afraid of pain and looking too much like an ass (a trait I've since grown out of), so I'd get pumped, go outside to ride my bike (a sweet powder blue and white GT Performer covered in pink GT stickers), fall off once while trying to do a simple trick and then pedal back home in a huff.  Pretty sad I know.  Guess I would have been the definition of a poser.

Anyway, the flick's main star is Bill Allen who at the time was a 24 year-old guy who looked a hell of a lot like a young Powers Booth.  Playing opposite of Allen was a young Lori Loughlin, who would later on play Uncle Jessie's girlfriend/wife on Full House for six or seven seasons.  Rounding out the cast (in terms of the more known established actors) are Ray Walston of Fast Times at Ridgemont High fame, Jack Weston (who I remember mostly from Dirty Dancing, Ishtar and Short Circuit 2, but who also had turns in flicks like the Cincinnati Kid and the original Thomas Crown Affair), and H.B. Haggerty (who was a familiar wrestler and starred in another underrated flick from the 80s, Million Dollar Mystery.)



In the above screen caps you can take a gander at two of my favorite 80s BMX memories, the first being a fabled full pipe and the second my favorite freestyle move though I have no idea what it's called.  Basically it's when someone does an endo, starts pogoing on the front tire and whips the frame of the bike around in circles, stepping over it as it flips around.





The opening credits sequence is one of those (for me) breathtakingly awesome bits of 80s nostalgia and excitement that I revel in like a drug.   Between the sickly sweet fist pumping heartfelt ice breaking and right making anthem playing over the free-styling action, and the non stop montage of professional BMX riders doing all your basic tricks and such, it's just 80s perfection.  Every time I hopped on my GT Performer heading out for school in the morning, this is the kind of thing I had in my mind's eye.  Sure, I couldn't do much besides popping a wheelie or coming to a side-sliding stop, but I always imagined I was just as talented and, well, cool.  Never meant to be though.

Anyway, back to the film.   The action opens on Cru Jones and his two friends Becky and Luke, splitting up to do their morning paper routes…



What follows is a montage (of which this film has in spades) of the three playing out every possible BMX cliché and fantasy, at least in terms of riding around a local neighborhood goes.  There's riding through construction sites (which was always a favorite of mine growing up within a series of newly built subdivisions…)



…followed by the perfectly timed (or not so much so) jump off of one structure onto a car (and the hilarious wipe out that ensues, complete with straightening of hair and uttering the word "gnarly".)



To illustrate just how ensconced Cru and his compatriots are in their small town, the local fire department is shown getting their delivery mid-street at the appointed time, as well as a friendly garbage man who obviously gives Cru a 'lift' on a regular basis…



Of course, everything isn't wine and roses.  The filmmakers had to make sure and keep an edge to the characters, which is where the ornery residents of the 'hood come in.  You've got the guy who doesn't appreciate his paper thrown into his flower bed, and the most typecast curmudgeon of all time, Ray Walston, who gets a walkway full of spilled coffee and newspaper, courtesy of our hero Mr. Jones.



The sequence ends with Cru in the middle of town staring down an iconic clock tower pumped at another shot at his own best time.  Again, though this sequence is pretty cliché, it does address a lot of what it felt like to cut through my own neighborhood, using my regular shortcuts through golf courses, and light woods to get to school or my friend's houses.

There's even a nicely executed bit with Cru riding though a specifically rigged section of fencing (again, another childhood fantasy of secret passageways hidden throughout the subdivision), which he then turns to face revealing the plot of the film in an advertisement for Helltrack, a 7-Eleven sponsored BMX event coming to the small town.



Again, the plot is pretty straight forward with the corrupt owner of a BMX company (an actual company Mongoose, who I'm sure didn't realize how their company was going to be painted when they agreed to be featured in the film) putting on Helltrack to promote one of his star riders, Bart Taylor (played by real life Olympian Bart Conner), and securing a million dollar T-Shirt licensing deal.  The catch, and the entry of our hero into the story, comes with a local town hall meeting where the residents want to know if local talent can enter into the race.  After some thought, Mongoose owner Duke Best (played with plenty of sleeze by Jack Weston) decides that there will be a qualifying race, the top contenders of which will be featured in the final Helltrack race.



If you've ever seen a kids flick in your life you can probably figure out the rest of the film from here.  But this is beside the point as the cult status of this film isn't in its intricate plot shenanigans, but in the 80s laced cheese, and fun BMX sequences.  One of my favorite of which takes place in a lumberyard where our heroes have a clubhouse (again, another staple of my childhood fantasies realized on film.)  Again, like with the morning paper route antics, this group of BMX nerds is apparently frequently confronted by a local motorcycle cop (played by the iconic H. B. Hagerty) who chases them for sport.  In this bit, it involves riding around huge stacks of freshly cut & stacked wood, as well as a mountain of logs that Cru ends up very unconvincingly riding up to evade the policeman (you can see the planks through the logs the stunt rider used to scale the heap.)  It's crazy and over the top set to a goofy fun rock song called Get Strange by the act Hubert Kah.



Of course, there's also the angle of the Cru's home life with precocious sister Wesley (place in pitch perfect Peppermint Patty tomboy by Laura Jacoby), and his hardworking depressed mother played by Talia Shire (who brings way more gravitas to the role than the film probably calls for, but is plenty welcome.)   Basically, the old push and pull of Cru's hopes and dreams of becoming an ace BMXer, and his obligation to get good grades and go to college (the money for which his mother works hard to earn.)   It's not enough that there's a super evil greedy BMX company owner to contend with.



Completing the template set up by films like the Karate Kid, Cru also has to master that perfect race winning BMX trick, the awe inspiring 360 degree mid jump back flip.  It's surely the crane kick of this film, though is eventually more or less useless in the grand scheme of things.



The film really picks up steam with the introduction of the main villains of the piece, Bart Taylor and his twin toadies, Rod & Rex Reynolds (played by the dreamy real life twins Carey and Chad Hayes respectively.)  They're introduced in the weirdest fashion, a parade through the center of town.  Granted, the whole Helltrack business would probably be a big deal, but parade worthy?  I don’t know.  Of course, blowing into town along side Bart, Rod, and Rex is the lovely Christian Hollings (played by the one and only Lori Loughlin, who looks about ten years older than the character she was cast to play.)



One of the weird themes in this flick involves our hero Cru not always portrayed in the best of lights.  As I mentioned in the beginning of the film he's not the best paperboy, annoying shop keeps by riding through their stores, and knocking coffee out of senior citizen's hands willy nilly.  There's also a short bit with Cru jumping a fence into the school parking lot right into the middle of a group of yuppie teens, who granted probably deserved it, though it's still unprovoked and not the nicest.  During the parade, there is a weird sequence where Cru and his friends stop the parade to let a lady in a car on a side street through the traffic, but then to the angry sneers of the evil BMXers and being chased by the local fuzz, Cru beats a hasty getaway by jumping his bike onto a car and riding over it.  Maybe it's just the crotchety old curmudgeon in me, but this would have pissed me off and I'm sure dented the hood and roof to hell and back.  Maybe I'm just getting to old to appreciate these teen action flicks.



By far, my favorite sequence in the entire film revolves around a school dance that Bart, Rod and Rex are forced to attend while in town.  The scenes feature two of the zaniest, most ridiculous dance sequences ever put to film (including both Rodney Dangerfield performances in Caddyshack and Back to School.)  The first is the stupendously retarded evil line dancing bit, set to the song Music That You Can Dance To by Sparks.  Bart Taylor is decked out in his supremely "cool" suit jacket over a plain yellow T-shirt looking like a reject Billy Zabka clone and is dancing with a hussy all gussied up to look like Debbie Harry.   They're both so stiff and trying way too hard to exude sexiness that they come off laughable, particularly in their Macarena-like dance moves (don't you dig the crossed arms grasping the shoulders dance move?)   The look of evil intensity on their faces is offset by the absurd faux break dancing styles of the Reynolds twins dancing around a zebra-striped, skintight-lycra-wearing shell of a woman.  Hands down, the evil dancing craziness reaches a nice crescendo when the twins drop to the floor doing the god awful push-ups move, followed by a double dose of the worm that has to bee seen to be believed.



As all this is going on inside, Cru (who has come to the dance Dutch after being rebuffed earlier in the film), is doing a bunch of freestyle BMX tricks outside the school gym.  A crowd begins to gather, when all of a sudden Lori Loughlin arrives and a very tenuous, yet lasting connection is formed between the two star-crossed lovers…



…which leads to the single most insane dance sequence ever!



Set to Real Life's Send Me an Angel, Cru and Christian proceed to rip up the floor BMX style, dancing on their bikes.  The above screen captures just don't do this sequence justice.   In fact I don't have the words to adequately describe just how over the top, hilarious, and amazing this sequence is (check out youtube for the proof and judge for yourselves…)
This craziness is followed by a lightening fast procession of falling in love montage scenes set to With You by John Farnham.  Again, it's predictably hokey, but lovable just the same and ends with the oddly named Ass Sliding scene.  Why is there a nice concrete slide in the middle of the woods leading down into a nearby lake?  Don’t know, but it makes for some zaney love scenes…



Again, adding to the idea that Cru isn't the best person in the world, he ends up sort of cheating during the Helltrack qualifying races by riding outside of the boundaries to avoid entangling with the other racers, and skipping over obstacles.  It's a weird message to send to kids, and it sort of ends up muddying the film a bit.  Ces't la vie though.  The sequence is scored by the rocking Thunder in Your Heart by John Farnham, which is equally as high five inducing as the opening song Break the Ice.   It's rare that a movie like this get two fist pumping anthems…



Of course, by taking part in the qualifiers, Cru has to pass up on taking his SATs, and really pisses his mother off.

To complete the clichéd plot, Cru is wooed by both Duke Best and the evil BMX hussies to come ride for them, and just as soon as he turns them down, our hero finds more obstacles in the way of riding at Helltrack…



Enter the last bit of cult styling to the movie with the introduction of the Rad Racing team, as Cru and his friends find that they have to have a liquid corporate sponsor in order to ride at Helltrack.  The group decides to print up their own T-Shirts with their newly formed team logo and sell them to raise the money they need to race.



Of course in all the ruckus there is some strife for the blossoming relationship between Cru and Christian.   If this film holds the record for the most insane dance sequence, then it also holds the record for the corniest make-up love scene involving a god awful poster featuring pandas and ice cream, reenacted by the two doe-eyed lovers.



As a quick aside, take a look at that monster comic book rack in that ice cream/convenience store!



Again, falling back on the Karate Kid template, the film features a 'sweep the leg' moment as Duke Best informs Bart, Rod and Rex that they need to wipeout Cru no matter what it takes (punctuated by Weston knocking back some whiskey.)



The film builds to the crazy BMX track called Helltrack, and boy does it live up to its name.  Featuring an almost two story vertical drop and some craze jumps (for standard BMX bikes at least), not to mention a giant cereal bowl (of Kix no less), Helltrack was a very convincing set piece.



Again, another strength of this movie was that it featured a bevy of real BMX superstars…



A). Team Hutch – Jeff Ingram. B). Team Robinson – Richard Fleming. C). Factory DK – Robert Rupe. D). Powerlite – Danny Millwee. E). Redline Team – Scott Clark. F). Norco – Kirk Bihun. G). GT – Mike Napareho. H). Binghams Schwinn – Glen Adams. I). Peddle Power Rider – Chris Phoenix. J). Team Robinson – Travis Chipres. K). GT – Eddie Fiola (who also did most of the stunt riding for Cru in the Film as well as being the Technical Advisor on the stunts.) L). GT – Kevin Hull. M). Skyway – Richie Anderson. N). Vans – Beatle Rosecrans. O). Hutch – "Hollywood" Mike Miranda.







All in all, this is one of my favorite cheesy films from the 80s, one that I can watch a hundred times in a row and never get tired of.  I'm sure true BMX fanatics can't stand the flick, but as a kid I loved it to pieces.  Hopefully one day it'll get a true DVD release, but in the meantime I hear that Bill Allen is signing copies of the bootlegs (as well as selling headshots.)  Also, don't forget to check his site for some more Rad trivia, straight from Cru's mouth...

Well, this Halloween season has buzzed by so fast I feel like I could use a whole second month to celebrate.  As per usual, we haven't yet heard the pitter patter of tiny trick-or-treater's feet at the door, and again we'll have a ton of candy to try and eat over the next month.  One of these years we're going to get at least one kid and I'm telling ya, the whole candy bowl is going in that bag (and trust me, it's always the good stuff!)  Anyway, I hope everyone has enjoyed my countdown, as well as visited the other fine blogs doing their creepy part to keep this month chock full of spooky goodness.   Heck, I'll probably still be catching up on all the Halloween craziness for the next few months.  Also, before I get into the meat of this post, I just want to give an official Happy Halloween to everyone out there.

So on to the last countdown post for this season (barring any leftovers I might throw up tomorrow.)   Before I broke down my mother's will and her kibosh on watching horror movies, there were only a handful of flicks that I was allowed to catch that fell into the horror vein.  One of these was a favorite rental throughout my childhood, though for the life of me I didn't remember 90% of the film when I re-watched it this past month (after picking up an out-of-print copy from a local Hollywood Video that was closing its doors), Saturday the 14th (circa 1981)…



I think I remember the film's 1988 sequel (Saturday the 14th Strikes Back) a bit more, though after watching the trailer for that film as well I'm not so sure.  All I know is that for awhile growing up Saturday the 14th and the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown seemed like the only seasonal fare on TV.



I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting when I plopped this flick in the DVD player, but it sure as hell wasn't what I ended up watching.  Fluttering between god awful silly slap stick, bad pun comedy, and a pretty pedestrian horror film spoof, Saturday the 14th just doesn't know what it wants to be.  Again, seeing as I watched this a few times as a kid, and considering the film opens with a very goofy animation sequence, I figured this film to be kids flick fare…



The film stars husband and wife duo Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss as John and Mary a couple who has just inherited a decrepit and spooky house.  Of course, there are others who want the house, namely a couple of vampires named Waldemar (played with camp by Jeffrey Tambor) and Yolanda (played by Nancy Lee Andrews)…



The flick was produced by Julie Corman (wife of famous B movie producer/director Roger Corman) who also brought us the illustrious trilogy of exploitation nursing films, The Night Nurses, the Young Nurses, and Candy Stripe Nurses, as well as Chopping Mall (a film I’ve been obsessed with since falling in love with the poster art at a young age, but have never actually sat through.)  Howard R Cohen directed and penned the script (as well as writing the aforementioned the Young Nurses, which is where Corman probably came to know him; he also brought us episodes of Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Rainbow Brite, and Emmanuelle V!)



As I mentioned above, the film opens with Tambor and Andrews lusting after the old creepy house that has been inherited by Benjamin, Prentiss and their two kids, Debbie (played by Kari Michaelson of Gimmie a Break! Fame) and Billy (played with smart-alecky goodness by Kevin Brando…)



It seems that the house is cursed/haunted/possessed, and includes a copy of the Book of Evil, which has the power to unleash evil on the earth.  Billy being the perfectly precocious and curious kid finds the book, opens it, ignores the warning and proceeds to let fly the monsters of evil (which include a rouges gallery of men-in-rubber-suit-monsters such as a mummy, a beastly werewolf, and a goofy looking monster with eyes on stalks that reminds me of the aliens from the Explorers movie.)



There are a million bad puns and jokes, most issued by Richard Benjamin (who delivers the horrible dialogue with a grin and a smile.)  After the 1st third of the film I felt that this was surely a kid's flick, and was then totally taken aback by the drawn-out stripping-before-a-bath scene that (in the kid's film context) seemed inappropriately alluring…



I probably wouldn't have noticed if the scene didn't keep going and going, with plenty of close-ups on Kari Michaelson removing each piece of clothing slowly, and then continuously getting interrupted by phone calls and the like.  Granted, there was a shark-fin-headed gill monster lurking in the water of the tub, which was supposed to be suspenseful, but was really more of an irritation that kept the camera off Michaelson here and there during her strip tease.  I don't mind the disrobing scene in the least, it's just sort of weirdly placed in what I assumed was a kid's flick.   Also, is it weird that my wife and I freeze-framed the screen to see the breast covering bubble bikini that Michaelson was wearing to keep the movie clean?



The film takes another turn for the weirdly violent after the monster chases Michaelson throughout the house, and it's finally confronted by a cop (a neighbor of the newly moved-in family who happens to be passing by), who proceeds to shoot the creature in the heard (with large animated blood squirt and all…)



The creature then strangles the cop to death in a very frantically gruesome manner, again propelling the film outside of children's movie territory and into a b-horror film.  Nothing wrong with this, it just makes for a mighty odd combination.  We then slip back into the goofy kid's comedy arena after the family calls an exterminator for an owl infestation (actually it's bats, but the running joke is that they're owls) and they get a house call from none other than Van Helsing himself (played with glee by Severn Darden.)



The flick then see-saws between goofy and horrific as the wife is turned into a vampire by Tambor, and the family soon discovers that they are in fact trapped in the house by the power of the book (getting whipped in the face by a gust of wind and bright lights whenever they try and open a door, yet newcomers to the house seem to negate this effect.)   It's all way-too-darkly-lit montages of monster parties, severed heads, and eyeballs in the coffee as the family (and the live-in Van Helsing) decide how they can defeat the book of evil and the house-crashing vampires.



Saturday the 14th has one more surprise up its sleeve, as the plot comes to a head and we discover that the menace is really Van Helsing, who wants the power of the book to take over the world, and it's Tambor and Andrews who are trying to stop him…



Billy brings the book to the vampires, and a battle of immense strength and wills takes place (e.g. Darden and Tambor make a bunch of silly faces at each other for a few minutes while trying to levitate Billy…)



…and then the real action begins (well not really, but it was fun to type anyway!)  There's plenty of goofy special effects involving Tambor and Darden throwing lightening and fireworks at each other before Waldemar defeats the evil Van Helsing…



In the end, the family makes up with the vampires and agrees to sell them the house (they end up moving across the street into much nicer digs.)



Honestly, I don't know what to think of this film.  It's at times so-bad-it's-good, but mostly it's just bad, and I wonder what I found interesting about it as a kid.  You can barely make out what the monsters look like as the majority of the film is shot in darkness, though this is probably for the best as the costumes seemed to be pretty cheap.  All in all it just seemed like one big schizophrenic mess of a film that could only be surpassed by the sequel, Saturday the 14th Strikes Back…



Again, I've only seen the trailer, but a lot of the imagery (especially the shot of the blonde girl who is huge inside of the house and you only see her eye from a window) and cast strikes a bell with me.  This will certainly be one for me to track down…

Well, that does it for this year's countdown.   Here's to hoping I can find enough material for next year's.  Happy Halloween folks!

New Halloween candy has really been a mixed bag this year.  Overall I was pretty disappointed with the crop, but I have to admit that there were some pretty crazy concepts and designs floating about.  There were some really fun repackaging designs as in the Halloween Nerds that popped up way back in early August…



I mean as Nerds candy goes, it's kind of hard to find new ways to market it outside of pretending that the little candy coated grains of sugar are edible aquarium pebbles.   So when Wonka put 'em in plastic test tubes with monster shaped stoppers and called them antidotes, vaccines, makeovers, and morphs, it was pretty ingenious.  In essence I'm getting a little plastic monster toy, candy, and imagination fodder for pretending that the only thing keeping me from sprouting fangs and draining my wife of her life blood is the test tube of candy that is just outside my reach!  Seriously though, these were a great way of getting me excited about a candy that I've known and loved for years.   It also doesn't hurt that the werewolf figure/stopper bears an uncanny resemblance to A.L.F.!



In that same vein (oh ho, what a bad pun), we have Confectionery Lane's Halloween contribution this year in the form of a crazily realistic liquid candy Blood Bag!



When I saw Harris Smith write about this candy wonder over at his blog Negative Pleasure, I knew I was going to have to rush out and find the nearest Walgreen's and procure a bag for myself.  This is the essence of perfect Halloween candy, at least in concept.  What kid wouldn't squeal with glee at getting one of these realistic bags of blood plopped into their goody bag come Halloween night?  Unfortunately, as Mr. Smith points out in his post, the liquid candy is pretty awful.  It's way too sour and chemically enhanced sweet that it would be quite the chore to consume the bag without puking up blood colored vomit minutes later.

Also in the fun-in-concept-but-awful-in-execution department we have yet another large gummy severed hand make a debut this year, this one from Amos Sweets…



This severed gummi hand is about the same size as this year's severed hand gummy from Flix Candy, and just about as inedible.  I'm getting the feeling that the larger gummi candy gets the more and more it starts tasting like rubber or plastic…



So, going by this thought one would think that any "normal-sized" gummy candy would probably taste fine right?  Wrong.  I had very high hopes for a late comer in the Halloween candy department, Sherwood Brands line of Gummi Scary Treats candy…



These four boxes of gummi candy had some of the most fun packaging designs I've seen in recent years.  These die-cut wraparound boxes scream love and attention to detail, so it was a real disappointment when the candy housed inside was pretty bland, and a little chemical tasting.



Probably the best effort in the gummi candy department as far as merging a great concept with a good taste was the 3-foot-long Big Fat Hissie Fit Gummy Snake I found at my local Wal-Mart…



This is a pretty impressive piece of confection as it's pretty much a life-sized gummy snake and it's pretty good as far as over-sized gummi candy goes.   I could see myself easily making my way through this monstrosity during a day watching horror flicks, though I'm sure I'd regret it soon after.   How much gummi candy can one eat in a day anyway?

All in all, I think I'm too easily swayed by the wolf in sheep's clothing when it comes to Halloween candy.  I want the crazy insanity of a giant lollipop Halloween mask, but I also want the quality of your everyday Nerds or fun-sized candy bar.   I think this is asking for a bit much though, at least not without a heft price tag.  Who knows, there's always next year…

Last year during the ghouliest season of the year I wrote about a piece of Halloween candy that completely floored me as it was the single craziest, and largest gummi I'd ever seen called the Mad Lab Frog Dissection Kit (which was part of the Target-specific branded candy under the Edgar & Ellen heading.)  Though I was completely dazzled by the kit, in particular the molding on the frog gummi itself and the concept in general, I sort of lamented a couple of the design elements (or lack thereof.)  The set came with some gummi flies that were tucked away in a little baggy hidden in the hollowed-out belly of the frog.  Personally I thought this was a missed opportunity as the set is a 'dissection' kit, and it would have been so cool to have to cut into the frog (with the provided plastic knife) to liberate the flies.  I also thought that it might have been cool to include some sort of liquid candy (like the innards of a Squeeze Pop) to give the impression of a gruesome reptilian autopsy.

Well I was pretty happy this year when I first glimpsed the 2008 Target candy section and saw that the gummi frog dissection kit had made a comeback.  It's a bit smaller, though just as heavy, and I hoped as I was standing in the checkout line that it's reduced stature and increased heft might mean that there were some dreamed of improvements…



Target ditched the Edgar & Ellen branding this year in lieu of their new Domo theme (as I mentioned in the inaugural post for this year's countdown), and the new dissection kit has since been relegated to the normal Target monster character branding (as well as being a great example of the design of this year's offerings, package-wise.)  It's been re-dubbed a Gummy Dissection Kit (a bit more generic to give room for other varieties as we'll see in a minute), and is pretty much just a pared down version of last years affair…



Basically the gummi flies and a good bit of the molded details have been dropped, and though the frog itself has shrunk, it's now solid and has an opaque section of gummi layered on top of the more standard green translucent base.  As I plunged the little orange plastic knife into the tough gummi flesh I still had hopes that there was a liquid surprise inside, but I was disappointed as it's just one sold gummy frog.  Also, it's still green apple flavored (not my favorite by a long stretch) so I didn’t really care for the taste, though it has a better consistency than the Flix gummies I talked about a couple days ago.

This year we can also choose a second dissection kit if the frog doesn't float our boat.  The gummi heart is a welcome addition to the stable of oversized (almost life-sized) confections around this season.  It's exactly like the frog with no fun little discoveries tucked inside, and is strawberry flavored, so it might be more palatable for those of us who don't care for green apple candy flavoring.



All in all, I'm still a little disappointed at the missed opportunity of putting more 'dissection' elements into the candy, but it's still a neat idea that I'm sure kids are going gaga over.  Maybe next year, huh?

So if the fact that I'm doing this Halloween countdown weren't enough of an indication that I love the season and horror themed entertainment in general, I just have to take a moment to say that I love the scary.  Ever since I was a little kid I've been infatuated with the macabre, be it grotesque Garbage Pail Kids artwork, the array of insane Halloween masks that used to be on display at Spencer's in the 80s, the addictive VHS covers to all the horror films at my local video store, and especially in the fiction I chose to bury myself in.  I've written many times of my love of the Crestwood Monster Series in past countdowns, and when I started ignoring chapter and Choose Your Own Adventure books for more adult fare it was Stephen King that I first picked up (around the time I turned 12.)  Another example of some ghoulishly fun reading that I did when I was younger is a short series of books starring a character named Samantha Slade.  I mentioned the series a couple years ago in passing, but I thought I'd take a second today to look at the books a little closer, in particular the wonderful cover art by the very talented Jody A. Lee.  The series was published between 1987 and 1988 by Archway Paperback Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, and was written by Susan Smith (an author who I haven't been able to find much information about.)



Of the series, I must have read this first installment (SS: Monster-Sitter) the most (at least 10 times if not more) since my mom picked it up for me in 1987.  The series was probably cashing in on the craze of the Babysitter's Club and the rest of the book series in that ilk.  I certainly wasn't against dipping into series that were more or less meant for the other gender (I loved the more girl-centric Judy Blume books for example), but what really grabbed me wit this series was its creepy theme in that Samantha is a babysitter for what amounts to an amalgam of the Addams Family and the Munsters.  Basically, Samantha plays Marilyn to the Brown Family's monsters, spending the majority of the first book unaware that the kids she's sitting for are actually monsters (believing that the family is just eccentric to a T.)  Between heading up the planning committee for her school's annual haunted house, taking on this new babysitting gig, and trying her darnedest not to embarrass herself in front of a boy she has a crush on, Samantha just doesn't get a break.  With the help of her best friend Iris and some unexpected aid from the Brown kids (Lupi, a real life werewolf, and Drake a mad scientist in training) she manages to pull everything together and put on a legendary haunted house party.

One of the aspects of the first book that's always stuck with me is all the crazy food that the Browns (an unbeknownst to her, Samantha as well) consume including crunchy spider's legs (seen on the cover above.)  There's a scene in the book where the Brown kids help Samantha make burgers out of, well, it would be indecent to say.



As far as the rest of the series goes, I wish I had found them when I was younger.  Though I loved the first book to death I never found any other entries in the local used and new bookstores around the central Florida area.  There was an ad in the back of the first book which teased me with and informed me to look out for the second installment, Confessions of a Teenage Frog, and for years I was curious about the continuing adventures of Samantha Slade.  It wasn't until the amazing gift that is the internet that I've managed to track it, and the rest of the series down in the last 10 years.  Confessions picks up where the last book left off with Samantha now the permanent sitter for the Browns.  While attempting to run for class president she partakes in Drake's "Greatness Formula" which does little for the campaign, and in fact turns her into a frog.

In the third installment, Our Friend: Public Nuisance #1, Samantha is introduced to Lupi and Drake's pet dinosaur Bubbles.  Drake invents an invisibility formula that makes Bubbles disappear, but he escapes the starts ravaging the town.  Samantha has to snap to action to corral the dinosaur and keep him safe from the nation guard and the angry townspeople as the invisibility formula begins to wear off.



The last installment revolves around Samantha and the kids starting up a band (called simply enough Blood) and entering into a battle of the bands.  This is probably my favorite cover in the series as the realization of the band in full glam/glitter rock glory is awesome…



I think these hold up pretty well, and aside from the questionable first person perspective (it gets old having Samantha explain and give internal commentary on everything), I was surprised at how enjoyable it was to read through them.

Today's cel completes the core line-up of the Ghostbuster crew with Winston Zeddmore (Zeddemore in the movies) and Ray Stanz.  As opposed to yesterday's cels, both characters are painted on the same layer which I think is kind of weird.  Like I mentioned, I'm kind of confused as to when animators will combine characters on the same cel or split them up.  I sort of figure that characters would be separated when one or both are "moving" so as to make it easier to keep them independent or save on mistakes, but in this cel it appears that Winston and Ray are having a conversation which would imply movement, at least in their heads and mouths.  I don't know…



Also in the vein of yesterday's discussion, I wanted to note that Winston also underwent a change between the movies and the cartoon in that the character seems much younger and enthusiastic, while dropping the almost burnt out mellowness of Ernie Hudson's live-action portrayal.  I think character-wise he ended up changing the most, probably to make him more appealing to kids.



One of the other aspects that this cel illustrates is how much cheaper the actual paint stock seems in comparison to cels from other cartoons.  It's thin enough so that you can clearly see the photocopied line work on the cel through the layers of paint.



Lastly, even though I always felt that the Real Ghostbusters had much better animation that a lot of its contemporaries, I'm not so sure now.  Looking at the pencil line work above for instance there seems to be a less sure hand at work.  It's either that or it was drawn super fast as a lot of the lines don't connect or feel kind of wavy, not nearly as fluid as some of the other pencil under drawing work that I've seen.  Again, because of super hectic animation schedules or less experienced animators, I'll probably never know…

Well, I didn't get off my lazy butt for a Sunday post, but the world isn't ending because of it (there are so many blogs doing Halloween countdowns this year I think we can all stand to take a break for a day here and there.)  This week I thought it would be fun to have my normal subject matter and the Halloween countdown converge with an entire week of animation cels from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.   I recently picked up a bunch of nice cels and have been talking about them in my regular Cartoon Commentary! column.  So break out the proton pack, warm 'er up and get ready to bust some ghosts (or do something more creative like redecorating your house with the portable nuclear generator strapped to your back, or rescue some helpless kittens in trees by blasting them off the branches, it's up to you.)



I picked up these first couple cels as a set.  In this scene Peter Venkman and Egon Spengler are walking together.  Now one of the things I love about going over these animation cels is trying to learn more about the process of making cartoons by studying the art and how it was put together.   These cels raise the question of scene construction for me.  Now I always assumed that a scene with multiple characters would be broken down into many layers of cels, each with one aspect of the scene painted on it.  For this set of cels there's one for Egon, one for Peter, and I assume there was at least a background (and possibly another layer of background objects that might be moving.)  On the other hand, I figured that if two of these aspects come into contact (outside of the background which is typically not on a cel, but rather a painting that the cels are shot on top of, or which are transposed onto later in the process) that they'd end up being painted onto the same cel.  I've seen examples of this in cels available on eBay where characters grabbing each other, or layered on top of each other are on the same cel (in fact the cel that I'm going to share tomorrow has Ray and Winston together on the same layer.)

Well since this set is in two layers, it makes me wonder why.   My best guess is that one or both of the characters won't stay static for very long, so it would be easier to just paint that character again on a new cel to show the movement, and there would be less of a chance of screwing up and less work in general than having to paint both characters over again.





Another aspect to this set that I found interesting are the pencils for Peter that I picked up along with the cels.  The whole form that appears on the final painted cel isn't in the pencils.  Again, this suggest to me that the animators used the body that was already drawn for the previous cel and just changed his head.  This seems like a pretty standard way of saving on drawing time.  What I'm curious about is how they merged the two sets of pencils (this head with the previous body) for photocopying onto the cel above.  Since this drawing of Peter's head is still on a full sheet of paper and not cut out and pasted over the previous body drawing's head, how did they get the new final image?  In the examples of this time saving practice that I've seen before, the new pencils are typically added to a photo copy of the previous drawing, which when copied onto the cel looks like one smooth set of line work.  I guess the animators in Korea could have photocopied this drawing of Peter's head and pasted it over the other drawing.  Again, it then raises the question of how they store their finished work when it's done and what sets of pencils to keep with what finished cels.  Actually that's more of a nitpicky question that seems a bit too pointless to wonder about (unless I'm planning on getting a job collating for an Asian animation house.)



These cels are a nice example of how not to over work one's self as an animator.  Notice that Egon's right shoulder is missing the Ghostbuster's logo patch.  Obviously there's no point in drawing it, and then wasting paint when the shoulder is just going to be covered up by Peter in the shot.  Of course I wonder where it's best to draw the line on this sort of practice.   I mean why not leave off most of Egon's right arm while you're at it?  Seems sensible enough, though maybe the logistics of not finishing the drawing might make it a little more difficult or tricky to animate (like if the cels where laid down in the wrong order, there would be one weird looking armless Egon instead of him just missing his BG patch.)





I do have to wonder why the producers and designers of this cartoon decided to make the characters so different, not only from the original movie, but between the various character designs.   I suppose this was an extreme and early example of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles phenomenon where it would be easier for kids to tell the characters apart if they had their own color schemes, in particular with the hair colors.  I always thought it was a very odd decision to make Egon tow-headed instead of having dark hair.  Not only does it seem really out of place when comparing him to his real life counter part played by Harold Ramis, but it changes the characters possible Jewish ancestry to something more Nordic (or Jewish new wave/punk.)  What's even weirder to me is that I never questioned it as a kid.  Egon was Egon, and that was all there was to it.

So, for this first day of October, and for the first official post of the Halloween countdown this year I thought I'd go over some of my pre-season shopping experiences at the usual suspects like Target, Wal-Mart, the Spirit Store, Spencer's, and Toys R Us.  To tell the truth, I was looking forward to the seasonal macabre sections in these consumer megaplexes even more than usual this year, if nothing else to get my mind off of work.  It didn't help that I was super excited to see what the various stores came up with this year as most of the stores had some great stuff last year (from mascots to candy and décor.)  Unfortunately, it's beginning to seem like a bust (at least for my tastes) as most places don't really seem to be in the spirit and the one who are, seem to be a little bit lazy or schizophrenic about it.  I think I just wanted the shopping experience to be way to splendiferously awesome that I've harshed my own mellow with expectation.

The other aspect to perusing the Halloween-y store shelves this year that was sort of a downer was a weird crack down on inside-store photography.  Granted, it's usually best to seek permission before walking into a place and snapping a bunch of pictures, but I'm more of the sneaky sneak when it comes to this sort of tradition.  Well, all of the Halloween specialty stores in the area have started posting "No Photography" signs everywhere.  As silly as this sounds, I can't help but think I contributed to this as I was "caught" in a couple places last year and almost but not quite grilled about my spooky store shutterbug hobby.  Granted, I'm sure my antics don't hit on the radar of the big wigs at these places, but at the same time I know that a lot of these places are owned by the same companies (The Spirit stores are a Halloween liquidation front for Spencer's), so many a memo went around.  Heck maybe a lot of bloggers have been caught snapping pictures of these fine institutions and it's becoming a concern.  Who knows.  At the end of the day it was sort of a bummer, though to be honest, there wasn't a whole lot to photograph.

Basically the only two places that seemed to merit a little bit of photo archiving are Target and Toys R Us, and the latter isn't all that interesting as far as the in-store stuff.  So practically all my photos this year are from Target, though I did go ahead and snap a picture of a new seasonal store called Halloween USA…



Inside it was basically an exact replica of the Spirit store, though a little more spacious as it was housed in an old department store location.  This place did have an advantage over the Spirit store in that they had a larger selection of props, general Halloween goofery, and décor, though this is a segment of holiday shopping that seems to be shrinking across the board.  The Spirit store has almost entirely scaled back to pre-packaged costume sets, though they still have a decent (though somewhat stagnating) selection of costume props.  I'm missing the lack of plastic/wood/ceramic skulls, fake torn-off limbs, little monster shaped baubles and the like though.  Maybe stores like this require you take a break for a couple of years so as to not burn yourself out.  I'm sticking to that thought…

By far, and as in most years, my favorite showing was at the local area Targets.  This year (like the previous) Target has decided to base their basic seasonal design around an already established property, Domo, which according to wiki is the mascot of the Japanese NHK television station.  The character is apparently a "strange creature who hatched from an egg" (according to the official site), lives in a cave, passes gas when he's nervous or upset and doesn't like apples.  Besides the fact that he looks like an adorable monster, I have no idea why Target decided to co-opt Domo for their Halloween advertising as there's noting spooky or really Halloween related about the lug.  There are a ghost and a couple of bat characters in the Domo universe (you can visit all the characters here), but none of them are used in any of the Target marketing as far as I can see.  Color me old and out of touch, but I just don't get it.  He is cute though…



 

 

 

What's kind of weird about the Domo Halloween branding is that besides all of the signage and there is only a small endcap of Domo Halloween products.   Everything else is covered in what I assume is Target specific Halloween branding, an evolution of their cute monster characters from years past.  This is sort of what I was referring to as schizophrenic branding.  Why go to all the trouble of securing the rights to Domo when the majority of your store branded merchandise features a completely different design campaign?

They've also seemed to scale back on the Mexican Day of the Dead theme to a lot of past years products (like my beloved mariachi skeleton), focusing instead on the black laser cut metal baubles and faux statuary…

 

They do have one heck of an awesome Day of the Dead skull Bucket, though it's so large that I have no earthly idea what I'd do with it.



As far as their own character branding, it's pretty prevalent though out the department, and it even shows up on a bunch of name brand products like Bounty paper towels, Zip Loc sandwich bags, and Softsoap hand soaps.  Again, it's kind of weird and unfocused.  I assume if you aren't as anal about useless pop culture non-sense, you know, a normie, you wouldn't even realize there were a set of Target branded characters floating around out there…

 

Most of the candy from previous years has shown back up on the shelves in new packaging like the large gummy tongue/vampire fang sets, the finger lollipops, and test tubes full of powdered or Halloween themed Runts-like candy…

 

I was surprised to see a new section crammed in next to the candy though.  Apparently Target is taking another shot at pushing the idea of a more personal family oriented Halloween celebration in the form of themed party games (in the past couple years they've been featuring more and more candy products that stray from the traditional fun-size neighborhood trick-or-treating fare, going for a more celebrate by yourself giant gummy frog type of deal.)

 

As is now tradition, there was a whole new crop of Jones Soda products in a bevy of odd flavors to wet one's gullet.  They've nixed the Gruesome Grape and Spiced Cider from the mini can line-up and added Spookiwi, and Buried Pomegranate.  They've also dropped the jack-o-lantern theme to the can design and ushered in a awesome line of classic monster mugs.  I’m especially fond of the werewolf design, though I can't stand their candy Corn flavored soda…

 

 

As I mentioned above I was also very impressed with Toys R Us this year, though not for any great products or branding in the store.  I'm surprised that they took their design aesthetic from last year with the super deformed, almost vinyl toy-looking, mascots and put it to a broader use.  There was a ton of cheap toys and games with the fun looking trick-or-treat monster mascots.  Here are scans of the main characters (there's also a cat and a Princess that aren't quite as cool):

    

    

I was hoping to find the same sort of brand building at Wal-Mart this year after I fell in love with their Frankenstein's monster branding from last year, but instead they went in the total opposite direction packaging all over their stuff in horribly boring plain orange packaging.  You couldn't make it look more generic and cheap.   I didn't even bother dragging the camera into the joint as it was just too boring.  Oh well.

Hopefully I've gotten the ranting side of things out of the way for the rest of the month and now I can concentrate on looking back a couple decades into the Halloween-y stuff of the 80s.  Tomorrow's post will echo a puppety one from last year that I enjoyed.  See you in 24 hours or so…

I feel like I'm so behind in keeping a regular posting schedule around here.  My day job is sapping so much of my time lately, and yeah, blah, blah, blah I know no one wants to read about my day job woes.  Anyway, there is a bright light on the horizon though as things are starting to fit into place and are getting back to normal (which means a regular schedule and routine), so hopefully I'll be back to normal soon.

In the mean time, here is another edition of Cartoon Commentary!, and yet another piece from my 80s animation cel collection.  This week I'm going to take another look at a cel from the Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon, circa 1984-85.  This one features another one of my favorite characters, Battle Cat, the alter ego of Cringer and steed/side kick to the muscled man himself, He-Man.



I think when it comes to Masters of the Universe I tend to fall in love with characters based on their design more than their personality per-se.  So as far as design goes, I really dig Battle Cat, in particular his gnarly helmet/mask, which highlights his almost serpentine yellow eyes.  I also love that the toy and cartoon designers managed to use the red and green color scheme without evoking even a lick of Christmas, which I have to say seems almost an impossible feat.  As far as personality goes, I like that they managed to turn give the Scooby Doo archetype a bit of a twist with his transformation from the meek fraidy cat Cringer into the bold and gruff Battle Cat.

Also, I managed to get a more overall scan of the cel this time so the production notes are included at the bottom (like I've mentioned, my scanner isn't all that big.)  I haven't managed to decode all of the notes yet, but I do know that the MU-92 refers to Masters of the Universe episode #92.  I'm not positive but I think that this cel is part of a sequence in which Battle Cat is about to leap up, and not the play bow that it appears to be.  Here's a closer view of the cropped image…



There isn't a whole lot to learn from this cel and its pencil under drawing.  The one thing I did notice that is kind of interesting is in the pencil drawing.  The animator made sure to color in a couple areas in Battle Cat's mouth, I'm assuming to show the final ink & paint artist where there would some color variation in that area.  You can see that whoever painted this cel could have misinterpreted the area to the right of Battle Cat's teeth as another place to paint in a darker red as it appears to be colored in like the area to the left, but upon closer inspection this is just where some of the blue pencil lines came close together.  I can see where it would be easy to miss-color something in the painting process, and again where Filmation benefits from having it all done in house where the communication would be better.



I have one more cel, from She-Ra, to share next week before I move on to another Filmation cartoon that I loved growing up, Bravestarr.

It's been awhile since I had a moment to sit down and sort of deconstruct a cartoon episode for the Cartoon Commentary! column.  I'm not tooting my horn in terms of importance or quality when I say this, but these columns tend to be pretty time intensive including watching and re-watching cartoon episodes, note taking, getting the screen grabs for the scenes I want to talk about, etc.  It's still something that I want to and enjoy doing; it's just been on the back burner for a bit.  Before I get too far removed from doing them though I wanted to sort of revive the column by including another facet to my 80s cartoon nostalgia.

Recently I began thinking about how I want to 'collect' and remember the cartoons I loved as a kid.  I have a few goals as far as a collection goes, and since I have some silly issues about buying up old toys and stuff off of eBay I've mainly been focusing on picking up whatever I can on DVD.  My original goal was to get at least one episode from every show on DVD, but as the format changed and season boxsets became first the rage, and then affordable, I've been focusing on those.

Lately though I've stumbled unto another money sucking aspect to the collection, but one that really solidifies the idea of 'owning' a piece of my childhood, which are animation cels.  Pretty much, for me at least, animation cels represent the ultimate keepsake when it comes to cartoons, as you can't get much closer to the source material beyond finding a weird Charlie Kafuman-esque way of crawling into the heads of the animators and writers who created these shows (and it's much less disturbing in that stalker sort of way.)  Also, as far as the collecting gene that I suffer from, I'm the type that prefers the ability to easily look at (my wife would say 'blankly stare at') the collection, as opposed to simply squirreling it away with the knowledge that it's there (which is one of the reasons I can't bring myself to buy individual comic books anymore as they don't display well.)  So the nice original hand-painted cels will hopefully look really swell framed and on the wall.  Anyway, I figured since I'm going to be scanning these in as I buy them for posterity reasons, I might as well share them on the site, and it might as well be under the Cartoon Commentary! heading as it fits in really nicely.

Today I thought I'd share the first cel I decided to buy.  It's a medium sized shot of Orko from the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe show…



Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with the process of traditional animation, each second of footage in a cartoon in made up of a series of drawings and paintings done on cellulose acetate (think of a clear plastic sheet much like a transparency) overlaid on top of an opaque painted background.  Typically, each separate element in an animation scene that moves will be painted on it's own transparent cel, and then the cels are laid on top of each other to form a scene.  So when I say I'm picking up animation cels for the collection, they are usually going to be one of the individual elements on it's own cel without the background (as this is pretty much the only way I've seen them available for purchase.)  Since the backgrounds are re-used so much they are a bit rarer and might have been sold off in separate lots than the bulk sets of animation cels when studios liquidate their stock.  Also, there are typically a series of production numbers at the bottom of a cel (so the animators can keep track of each cel as there are thousands per episode), and I'm going to try and keep those in the scan when I can, but my scanner only has an 8"x12" bed, so for the Orko cel above I couldn't fit both the painting and the production notes.

I was really happy with this cel (especially for the price), as it's a character I adored from the He-Man cartoon and the actual image itself it pretty nice.  He's floating in a more or less normal pose, which his full body in the shot and his eyes are open.  This points to another aspect of collecting cels that's sort of weird.  Like I mentioned above, there are thousands upon thousands of cels produced for each and every cartoon covering a whole range of movement and perspective, so it's a gamble as to whether or not you'll find a cel where the character or element you want is small, medium or close-up, whether it's in a weird position, whether the character's eyes are closed or if there's an element from another cel intended to sit directly on top of this one you want (in which case that portion isn't painted as it wouldn't show on film anyway.)  Sometimes characters are cut-off on the side of a cel if they are entering the scene from either side, and it depends on what you are looking for as to where there is a full body shot or if it's more of a bust-like close-up.  It really is a crap-shoot.

As far as the actual quality of the artwork itself, this particular cel has survived pretty well over the 24 year or so that's it been around changing hands.  None of the paint has chipped off or stuck to the pencil under drawing that was included (see below), and all of the tiny little blemishes in the black line work appear to be original from when the cel was first produced.  Again, going into a little bit of the process of cel animation, and I'm certainly not an authority on the matter, but from what I can gather there are a series of pencil tests done on paper that is the same size as the finished cels.  These pencil tests include drawings of the various elements through out their series of movements in a scene.  Each pose is rendered on a separate piece of paper which are them scanned in or photographed to see how well the movement works.  If these pass the inspection, they are passed on to junior animators who fill in the gaps of the movements, again in pencil on separate pages.  When the final set are approved, they go onto to yet another group who use model sheets as guides and they re-draw all the pages so that it all looks like one artist drew the final sequence.  These final pencil drawings are then copied to the acetate cels, either hand inked, or photocopied.  I'm not positive but I would assume with the speed at which television animation needs to be produced that they are typically photocopied onto the acetate and then painters come behind them and paint the cels.

The blemishes in the black linework in the above Orko cel look like a bad photocopy job, is basically what I'm getting at here.  Now, for completeness sake I thought I'd also scan in the back of the cel where the actual paint is applied…



Now the Orko cel above is pretty simple in terms of color choices, there aren't any shading or color variations in the final image.  So basically it was simply a matter of painting on the back of the cel (so that the front will look crisp and clean) underneath the copied black linework (so that the line work when the image if flipped around will be showing with the paint under), taking care to paint anything perspective-wise that would be closer to the camera (for instance his right hand and ear with overlap both is cloak and hat respectively.)  You'd want to paint the closer aspects first so that they appear to overlap the colors that are 'behind' them and so that the red of his cloak doesn't bleed onto his hands, which would break the suspension of disbelief aspect to the image.  So when you look at the back of the cel you can see that the paint is pretty messy, but because of the way it's layered it looks crisp and clean from the other side.



The last element of the process (which is actually the last image created before the final cel is painted) is the pencil under drawing above.  This is the final drawing that is transferred onto the cel before it's painted.  As you can see in the drawing, it's initially done in non-photo blue lead to get the pose and basic shapes down, and then is 'inked' with a regular graphite lead for the final line work.  You can see in the artwork above where the animators kept changing the placement of the tip of Orko's hat.  When the final pencils are done there is no need to erase the blue under pencils because they won't copy onto the cel.

So I don't have a ton of animation cels in my collection yet, but over the next few months I'll try and share them as I scan them in.

So I know I've mentioned the Sugary Serials comic anthology before, but I thought I'd take a second to point to it again.  Basically the anthology is build around the concept of all ages comics influenced by the dynamics and feel of Saturday morning cartoons.  There is already a huge variety of stories available in their archive (they've been going for almost a year now.)  One of the more recent stories that I've been enjoying the heck out of it called Switch Runners by Mark Rudolph and Jerzy Drozd…



Mark and Jerzy decided it would be a fun challenge to try and design a comic based on a fictitious story/toy pitch much like the 80s properties G.I. Joe, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Transformers, etc.  They wanted to push themselves a bit out of their comfort zone by molding the idea around a vehicle-based toy line, trying to make the story a bit more interesting than shows like M.A.S.K.  Personally I think they succeeded in spades, creating a really vivid set of characters that are both influenced by 80s action cartoons and yet still feel new and interesting.  They did some swell work on the vehicle designs as well, putting together a concept that I know I would have been salivating over as a kid (basically all the heroes vehicles have 2 modes, one built for transportation/speed, and a second built for artillery and defense, which basically grounds the thing.)



The basic story line revolves around a group of space explorers who are drawn to a strange planet ruled by an evil being called Tritannus (he uses emergency beacons to draw unsuspecting aliens to his planet so that he can enslave them.)  The explorers end up crashing into one of the planets moons (which happens to contain a natural element that is a major source of Tritannus' power), brining their ship and a portion of the moon cascading down to the planets surface.  The explorers salvage as much from their destroyed ship as they can to built a new set of vehicles (with the help of the element from the chunk of moon they brought down with them) and a base while they try and figure out a way to fend off the attacks from Tritannus (who wants to reclaim the moon fragment to regain his full power) and find a way off the planet.



There are shades of all sorts of 80s cartoons and other kid's shows within the story and influences on the character designs (from Thundercats and M.A.S.K., to Bravestarr and the Muppet Show), but the world does not feel recycled in the least (it could totally hold it's own on the DVD shelf next to Voltron and the Silverhawks.)  It's also very natural in its influences and doesn't resort to overt or snarky cartoon references, which seem to be about as far as most 80s influenced contemporary cartoons go.  That's something that I enjoy about the anthology in general…



The team of heroes consists of five characters led by a slightly frustrated Ramp (who bears an intentional striking resemblance to Tom Selleck), and includes the distant Anchor (in the first picture above), the lively Talika, enthusiastic Rondo, and the hard nosed Farz (the redhead driving the vehicle Dispatcher above.)

As far as the villains go, they're a little stronger in number (with six), including Cyndrl (a creature of fire housed in a containment suit who talks in excited run-on sentences), Crass Reptillicus (the narcissistic know-it-all) and his admirer Shila (who is equal parts lovely lady and Baby Huey in a powerhouse of a dinosaur body)…



…as well as Tackle (a scheming half rock, half robot cyborg) and Terzo (the ex of Anchor and a turncoat traitor to boot.)



As I mentioned above, a screeching power hungry trio of aliens that combine to form the mighty Tritannus leads the villains…



The comic is still updating on the Sugary Serials site (it's up to page 11 as I type this), so if you have a second and enjoy 80s action adventure cartoons you might want to give it a try (as well as the rest of the comics in the anthology), you won't be sorry you did.  I can almost hear the 80s hair metal influenced theme music in my head as I read each page…

Though I don't think I've mentioned it here on the site all that much, I'm sort of going through a period of being utterly obsessed with buying toys again.  I wish I could say they were vintage, but I haven't quite gotten over that hump yet (of owning other kids once cherished action figures and vehicles.)  No I've been totally sucked into the hysteria that is the 25th Anniversary line of G.I. Joe figures that Hasbro has been releasing.  It started about a year ago around this time when the first waves of figures were hitting toy shelves around the country.

Now for the most part I've managed to suppress the itch to buy a ton of action figures in general because I'd both go broke and run out of room in the living domicile (not to mention putting a strain on my marriage most likely), and when the news first hit about these new G.I. Joe figures I thought I'd end up looking but not buying.  At first I was only aware of a couple of 5-pack sets that were being released (one Cobra, on Joe team members), and though the sculpts on the figures looked really cool, I didn't really like the packaging and thus felt I'd be able to fight the urge to buy.  Then the single carded figures started to hit stores, and the packaging design was like a sledgehammer to the gut.  Hasbro decided to go with a very similar look to their original card layout and art designs, close enough that I couldn't fight the nostalgic feelings welling up inside and I bought in.  The next thing I knew it was a year later and I've picked up almost every figure in the line so far.  I have them neatly arranged in rows on the wall by my computer desk sort of recreating the look of the back of the packages (with the pictures of the available figures in rows.)

Anyway, to get to the meat of why I'm posting about this, Hasbro recently announced the remainder of the line-up of figures expected to hit stores this year and toward the end of the list was a curious entry, a figure named Specialist Trakker.  Now this wasn't a Joe or Cobra figure, at least not from what I remember of the figures available in the original line, and the spelling on Trakker seemed to point to a character from another toy line in the 80s.  The fan community was mildly abuzz about who it might be, and people like me were keeping their fingers crossed that it might just be a 3.75" version of Matt Trakker from the cartoon and toy line M.A.S.K.  It did sort of seem crazy though, I mean why would Hasbro intermix 20 odd year-old toy lines even if they did own the rights to both?  We never saw G.I. Joe vs. Transformers toys (though there was a comic book series.)  Well, I received an e-mail from my friend HooveR this morning with some links to the HissTank.com site with some pictures of the Hasbro booth from the San Diego Comic Con, and finally I have pictorial confirmation that there indeed will be at least one new M.A.S.K. figure coming to toy shelves this year…





To say that I'm excited about this upcoming 2 ounces of plastic bliss is a bit of an understatement.  Not only does the figure look awesome, but Hasbro has done a great job once again of throwing the fans a bone by including a small M.A.S.K. logo on the packaging, and not just forcing the character into the G.I. Joe line.  The idiotic demon-nerd inside of me kind of wishes the overall card art reflected the feel of the M.A.S.K. packaging from the 80s, but honestly, I'm not enough of a stickler really care all that much.  My hope now is that we get a chance to see a few more characters from M.A.S.K. show up in future G.I. Joe lines, in particular Bad Turner and Miles Mayhem (who were my favorites.)

Many thanks go out to Hisstank.com for getting out the scoop on the new Joe figures introduced at the SDCC…

It just occurred to me that it's been weeks since I posted a new Peel Here column.  I guess this past vacation has really got me turned around as I'm still sort of lost on what day it is.  I thought I'd tie in this week's stickers to the WW: Chicago experience a bit, though very loosely.  One of the bits of fun I had at the show was taking a break from the table on the last day to hunt through some quarter bins with Jerzy Drozd looking for both some fun stuff to eventually share on the site as well as catching me up with some comics that I missed out on back when I was heavily collecting and only had eyes for the various X titles (X-Men, X-Factor, New Mutants, etc.)  I rewarded with a stack of Walt Simonson books (bits and pieces of his runs on both Thor and the Fantastic Four) as well as a handful of 80s toy and cartoon-centric comics (like M.A.S.K., G.I. Joe, He-Man, and a few issues of the Spiral Zone), but one that I was really curious about was the Saga of Crystar the Crystal Warrior.

I think the reason these jumped out at me in the bins is because I found a sheet of Crystar stickers awhile ago when I was first starting up the Peel Here column and to be honest, it's an 80s property that I don't know all that much about.  It's probably because of the fact that there wasn't a cartoon associated with the brand; instead Crystar was developed by Marvel comics so that they could license the brand to a toy company, essentially reversing the normal process of brand marketing (at least as far as 80s toy and cartoon lines were concerned.)  Since the comic debuted in '83 and the toyline (which Marvel managed to get Remco to pick up) the year before, I think I was too young to really glom onto it considering I was still a few years off of really discovering comics and I really only had eyes for Star Wars at this point.  I'm not sure how much Marvel attempted to merchandise the property, but as I mentioned above, it at least made it into the realm of stickers…



Again, I'm pretty unfamiliar with the world of Crystar, but after flipping though the two issues I found in Chicago and reading up on the story via its Wiki entry I'm intrigued.  Though the story seems to be centered on the age-old concept of two princes taking opposing sides to conquer/save a fantastical world, there are still some really fun elements to the plot.  For one, each prince chooses (or in Crystar's case is forced) an element to wrap their battle around; Crystar is wounded and is turned into a crystal like material to save his life, while his brother Moltar allies himself with a demon lord and is turned into a lava form.  There also seems to be a rich back-story behind two of the lower tier characters, Warbow (who I believe is the green crystal warrior in the sticker set above) and an evil wizard who both shoot the other's left eye out with arrows.  I can't explain it, but I find bits of character data like that fascinating.

I'm not sure if this is the only set of Crystar stickers or if their might be a second page. From what I gather this page features mostly the good characters (fighting on the side of Order) including Crystar in the middle, Warbow in the upper right, Feldspar in the upper left (who is actually the uncle of both Moltar and Crystar and is a neutral character which explains his half lava, half crystal appearance), and Ogeode in the bottom right (who is the wizard responsible for turning the crystal warriors into their current mystical form.)  I'm not sure of the lava dude on the bottom left is Moltar or just one of his lava minions (though judging from the cover to the first comic I'm guessing he is Moltar…)

Anyway, I'm intrigued by the whole concept, so I guess this will be another comic title I'll have to add to the list for future quarter bin sessions…

One of the things that I always look forward to on vacations out of town is tracking down new and interesting foodstuffs.  Whether it's some local flavors that are new to me (as a fer'instance scoring some Cincinnati chili and Chicago-style deep dish pizza recently), or something that's even more exciting to my pop culture obsessed mind, new brand name product offerings (in particular new soda and snack flavors.)  As I've mentioned on the site before we tend to visit Florida an awful lot and I am convinced that the Orlando area is a test market for some of the larger snack, soda, and candy companies.  We always tend to find new stuff there, and it's always months (if ever) until we see this stuff filter up to Georgia.

This past trip was no exception even though pickins were sort of slim.  Besides finding some single bottles of the all-in-one A&W brand Root Beer Floats (which are only available in hideously expensive 4-packs here), the big score this time were a couple bags of very odd flavored Combos snack crackers.  Now I say very odd, but only one of them was really weird, so I'll start with the more normal Cheeseburger variety…



Now I grew up with some weird flavored snacks all my life, as there always seemed to be Snyder's brand chips in our area.  Snyder's was the brand that had flavors like Steak & Onion, Meatball Pizza, and the almost normal Dill Pickle, so I'm familiar with the idea of savory beef-flavored snacks.  The complexity of intermingled flavors that companies are trying to achieve with Cheeseburger these days though is a little more out of the ordinary.  I first saw this last year when Doritos held their first mystery guess-the-flavor contest.  The above bag of Combos has this zany flavor intermixed with the cheese filling and it tastes almost exactly like last year's Doritos did.  The problem I see with this odd Cheeseburger flavor is that the food scientists aren't shooting for any one common cheeseburger flavor (like a creamy beef to simulate the burger and cheese), but practically every possible flavor you might have on a fully loaded burger.  There are the obvious hints of cheese (as the filling is cheese-based, well at least a close approximation of a cheese-like substance) and a more subtle beefiness, but there are also strong hints of pickle, ketchup, and mustard, which end up skewing the overall taste towards a very tart place.  All in all, it's not as much weird, as it seems to be a misfire, and would be better labeled as "Cheeseburger Condiment Flavored". 

The second new Combos flavor on the other hand (Bacon, Egg, & Cheese) is just downright evil in both concept and it’s all too accurate flavors…



First off let me just say that snack crackers/chips should never, EVER, be egg flavored.  There is a certain spoilability to the thought of eggs, though maybe it's just me.  I've always been of the mind that eggs should be eaten fast (unless hard boiled, and even then it's certainly not a tempting idea for a snack chip flavor), and in small quantities, as they tend to get cold and sort of sickening the longer you leave them out.  It probably doesn't help that bacon flavoring has always been something you'd typically find in either soup mixes or dog biscuits, and it just seems a little weird in chips (though I think Pringles has managed to pull it off in the past.)

Personally, as they Combos are almost as bad for you as eating a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese biscuit, I would much rather just go ahead and eat one that a very disturbingly close flavored approximation of one in snack cracker form.  I wonder if Jones soda will ever come out with a set of breakfast flavored sodas?  If so, I hope they contact the food scientists working feverishly at the Combos Company because they certainly nailed the flavor…

Well, I'm finally back from vacation (both from a trip to Florida to visit the family, and from our exciting trip up to Wizard World Chicago), so I thought it was about time I update the site.  It doesn't feel like two weeks have gone by, but then the wife and I did our best to pack each day with stuff so the time just flew by. The whole point of this vacation was to take the trek up to Chicago to both meet a bunch of people I'd been conversing with online as well as to debut the print edition of this very website, the Branded in the 80s magazine.  So how did it go?  Well, I figure I might as well start at the beginning and work my up to the meat of the post…

The wife and I had originally planned on attending this year's San Diego Comic Con as a belated honeymoon, but after pricing out the trip and finding out that hotel rooms were pretty damn hard to come by, we opted instead to hit WW: Chicago.  My sister was gracious enough to dump a bunch of her frequent flier miles on us, so the airfare was taken care of.  Even though the cost wasn't a headache, the idea of flying in general was.  I hadn't been on a plane since I was about 8 years-old, and certainly not in the post 911 climate.  I took every single security check in horror story to heart and expected the worst, not to mention the whole fear of heights and freaky gremlins (the type that drove John Lithgow to near madness in the Twilight Zone movie.)  I was pretty tense when we were dropped off at the Orlando International airport.  Funny thing is that aside from a short wait to do the initial check-in (the signage was amply confusing), everything else went off without a hitch. Security check in was no big deal (aside from having to take my shoes off, but then again I tend toward laziness), and we ended up having about 40 minutes to sit around in the terminal waiting for the flight to start boarding.  Here's a picture of our plane waiting on the tarmac…



The flight itself was no big deal. It probably helped that I didn't have the window seat, so at most I could only get a glimpse of the horizon out of the window.  The flight time seemed to slip by as well (it was admittedly a short flight at and hour and forty five minutes), though part of this had to do with Delta, as they had installed TVs in the backs of all the seating, so I had the Food Network to keep me company though most of the flight.  We had a stop over/connection in Cincinnati, and then a much shorter flight (45 minutes) to Chicago on a smaller plane, but again it was pretty uneventful.  My only other worry was catching a shuttle to our hotel in Chi town, but again, no big deal.  In fact, I think part of me was looking forward to some kinks in the trip as we only every really drive down to Florida from Georgia which can get pretty routine and boring.  Some snafus up to Chicago would only have reassured me that the trip was a little farther and more of a big deal.  As it was when we stepped out of the airport in Illinois we didn't even really have that feeling that we were in a different place.  The temperature was very similar (hot and humid the first day) and we hadn't really heard anyone talking so there were no local accents and flavors.  At most there were a ton of Cubs displays in the airport, but I'm not a sports guy so again, it could have been Atlanta for all we knew.

It didn't start feeling like a strange city until we hit the hotel (we stayed in the Sofitel because it was both close to the convention center were WW: Chicago was held, and because it was the only hotel that had rooms available for the entire weekend.)  The Sofitel was a bit, shall we say ritzy compared to what we were used to (I grew up on Super 8s and Holiday Inns), and as a perfect example of this all of the staff spoke in French (French first and then English second, how utterly ritzy.)  Actually, to add to the almost pretentious atmosphere in the place, there were HD TVs lining the wall above the Check-In desk that were playing old French black & white silent films.



At the end of the day, even though the place was nice as hell, there were a lot of simple drawbacks that made it feel like it was grossly expensive.  You had to pay for daily wifi service, local calls, and way too much to get a mini fridge in your room (I've never had to pay to get a mini fridge in a hotel room before.)  There were also pointless amenities in the room like an HDTV with no HD channels, so everything looked like piss poor quality.  It was however connected to the convention center via a very convenient sky bridge, so it gets some points there.

The con was held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, which was by far the best comic convention experience I've ever had.  I've been going to Dragon Con here in Atlanta since I was a junior in high school and it's always been a headache of multiple hotels and con floors that were sometimes 2 to 3 blocks apart.  At Wizard World though, everything was in the same building, which for convenience's sake was much appreciated.



Wizard World was also about 2 to 3 times larger as far as the floor and attendance goes, so it's the largest convention I've ever attended.  Of course, considering that I was exhibiting for the first time ever, I didn't really get a chance to get wrapped up in the experience like I used to back in my Dragon Con days.  I was expecting to see throngs of humanity and insane lines for everything (which was certainly the case for every Dragon Con I've ever attended), but with the exception of the line to get in on Saturday morning it seemed like quite the opposite.


(The line to get in on Saturday)

When my wife and I first walked into the convention center lobby and we saw the two areas for attendees to buy tickets and sign up we were shocked.  Not only was there one on waiting in line, but bother area were planted right next to the entrance to the actual con floor.  In my experience, there is usually a registration area on a completely different floor (if not in a separate building) to house the thousands of people vying to get inside.  It's not uncommon to wait in the ticket line for three to four hours at Dragon Con.  I guess most people pre-order there tickets to WW: Chicago.



Our second surprise came after we picked up our badges and made our way onto the con floor to set up our table.  WW ran from Thursday afternoon until Sunday evening, but there were hardly any people setting up in Artist Alley 2 hours before show time on Thursday.  Though that evening was only for people with four day passes, apparently not many of them show up.  Suffice it to say that we were a little perplexed by this, again because of our experiences at Dragon Con (where people wouldn't think twice about ripping your arm off and beating you with it if it meant they could get onto the exhibitor or dealers room floor an hour early.)  WW was just a little too laid back in this manner.  Also, we were also a little worried at this point because no one we were supposed to meet at the con (and exhibit with) had showed up yet.  It didn't stop us from setting up the table post haste though…



It might not look like much, but making everything in the picture above a reality has been keeping me from updating Branded as regularly as I'd like for the past two months or so.  Getting the two magazines written, typeset, and working on the layout and design took a lot more energy that I had anticipated.  Not only that, but I spent a lot of time agonizing over the cheapest yet most semi-professional way of filling out our half table space.  My friend Daniel at work suggested the collage as a way to catch people's eyes as they walked by and my wife suggested the vintage lunch box to house the buttons we were selling.  Then there was the matter of finding and designing cheaper color fliers and business cards.  Again, it might not look like much, but it sure did take a lot of trial and error to get that table set up looking as good as it did, and for as cheaply as we did it (I'll never tell.)

All in all I was pretty happy with it, happy enough that I actually look like I'm smiling for real in the photo below (a very rare occurrence, at least in photos of me.)



Like the lunch box, practically everything on the collage was culled from vintage materials as it was sort of my theme when creating the table.  I tried to get a nice overview of imagery to convey what it is I talk about on the site and in the magazine, and surprisingly it ended up working pretty well.  There were quite a few times when people walked by the table and you could see the gears turning in their head as they first dismissed it, and then something stuck and they'd slowly walk back and do a double take.  Strangely enough, the pictures of Scott Baio (from Charles in Charge) and the unmasked lizard trooper from V hooked people the most.  I think I'm actually going to leave the bulk of my con going experiences for another post (or perhaps a podcast, we'll see.)

Anyway, like I mentioned above, one of the main reasons we picked WW: Chicago was to get a chance to meet a whole mess of people we'd run into online over the last couple years including Jerzy & Anne Drozd (of Make Like a Tree Comics, Sugary Serials, and Boum Art)…



Mark Rudolph of CV Comics and Sugary Serials (pictured in the middle, in between Jerzy and Anne)…



Chet Lucero of Storm Corps and Sugary Serials…



Diana Nock (of Sugary Serials, not to mention some great work up at Jinxville), and Barry Gregory of Ka-Blam digital printing (pictured behind both Diana and Jerzy's quizzical head.)



Here's a shot of the Ka-Blam booth for completeness' sake.



I'm getting a typing cramp, so I think I'm going to end it here.  Hopefully I'll be able to force myself to do a part 2 (or a podcast) tomorrow…

Have I ever mentioned that I'm a nut for 80s cartoons on DVD?  Yeah, okay just checking.  Anyway, it was announced today (well, announced sounds so sure, lets say that it was "put on the schedule") by Warner Brothers that Season 1, Vol. 1 of the Silverhawks cartoon will be released on DVD October 14th! 

The suggester Retail is listed at $44.98 (which I'm sure will be busted down at places like Amazon for aroun $38 or so when it goes pre-sale), which seems a little steep, but then again Warner Brothers are also the geniuses who released the Thundercats sets priced at $65 (for half a season.)  Haven't these companies learned from the mistakes Rhino Home Video made with the Sunbow properties?  Why haven't they taken a cue from BCI (who, in my humble opinion, are putting out some of the best packaged and priced sets)?

There's been some bootlegs of the Silverhawks show floating around on Amazon and eBay, but I'm glad to see it's finally getting an official release.  It's been like 20 years since I've sat down and watched an episode of the show so I'm not sure how well it holds up, but I have to say that when it was on I was an addict.  I'd rush home from school, plop down in front of the TV and sing along with the theme song (loudly if no one was around.)

Apparently I really started perking up and paying attention to the new fall schedule sometime in 1982 because this is the first issue of TV Guide that I've flipped through where I recognize and remember watching most of the shows previewed.  I guess it kind of makes sense in a strange way.  I just turned five, started kindergarten, and was probably very aware of my nightly impending bedtime, and thus was more prone to arguing so that I could stay up and, I don't know, watch Knight Rider or something.  '82 was also the year that I missed out on a ton of Saturday morning cartoon time as my Dad decided that it would be good for me to get outside and meet new kids, so he enrolled me in the local soccer league (which he co-coached.)

    

When I first starting taking a close look at these TV guides I was figuring that there'd be a ton of crazy ads with way out of date prices (either insanely expensive appliances or insanely cheap food items), but for the most part everything has been about the same as it is now (at least for what would qualify for the equivalent by today's standards.)  That VCR above though is exactly what I was hoping to see.  Granted the video revolution was still in its infancy and no where near the peak it would reach in the mid 90s, but seriously, was $600 ever a good 'on-sale' price for a piece of hardware like a VCR?  It was normally $900.  In 1982 dollars!  I think that's like 1/10th what my parents paid for their Mazda 626 around that time.  I mean, doing the whole automobile divided by electronics equation for today's standard, well, I think…  Wait, no, I think that computes (scratching my head and doing the little calculator mine in the air)…  Yup, I guess you could evenly divide about 10 decent sized HD TVs into one Volkswagen Rabbit.  Damn!  Still though, I can't bring myself to buy an HD TV so I guess if I were in my parents shoes back in '82 I also would have waited until about 1987 to get our first VCR as well.  Going by those theoretical calculations, I should be joining the HD movement sometime in the next decade or so.

I was glad there was a different Vivran ad in this issue as well.  It makes a nice sister ad to the one I posted a few weeks ago.  The main difference is the hilarity.  I know when I screw up at work because I'm too tired to count money, I want my boss to give me the equivalent of a low level legal narcotic to keep me going (okay Vivran isn't really anything near a narcotic, but take enough of them and I'm sure it'll feel a lot like taking some speed.)  Besides, the ad makes me laugh when I shift the situation in my head to another profession, like a rough and tumble news helicopter pilot ("I destroyed three News11 copters and killed 2 traffic correspondents before my dispatcher gave me some little yellow pills that kept me in the air and flying for hours…") or a daycare worker ("I wiped twenty kids runny noses with the same tissue before I realized that the first kid had the chicken pox.  Thank god my supervisor had some Vivran Stimulant Tablets handy because it was my turn to walk the kids to the bus today…")

    

Like I mentioned above, in getting to the show previews in this issue I'm finally feeling a little like I’m on more recognizable ground.  Take that first 2-page spread featuring Joanie Love Chachi, the 9 to 5 sitcom spin-off, TJ Hooker and Cagney and Lacey.  Though I haven't watched many episodes of any of these shows (with the possible exception of TJ Hooker which I have some garbled, yet vivid memories of), I've been well aware of them all since they debuted.  I guess my threshold for remembering pop culture starts at 5 years-old.

I guess this is also the beginning of a comfortable time-frame in which these actors and actresses would go on to stay (more of less) in the public eye.  I mean TJ Hooker is Heather Locklear's beginning of a very long love affair with network television as she'd go on to star in no less than 4 more long running shows (yeah, I'm including LAX as it went to a partial season run, but c'mon, Melrose Place, Spin City and Dynasty all in one career?)  Heck, while I'm at it I might as well point to Shatner as well.  This would be his second big hurrah after Star Trek. I wish I could say the same thing for Adrian Zmed, but this was more of his last hurrah after his turns in Bachelor Party and Grease 2.  He sure does encompass that early 80s hunk look very well (not to mention giving Locklear's feathered hair a run for it’s money.)  There's also Scott Baio in his post Happy Days, yet pre-Charles in Charge glory with Joanie Loves Chachi (which I'm all of a sudden dying to see after taking a gander at the opening credits, shudder.)

Of course, then there's Silver Spoons, my hands down favorite 80's kid-centric sitcom (with Punky Brewster and Diff'rent Strokes coming in at a tie in second place.)  If there was one person I wanted to be like growing up it was Rickey Schroder, and if I could have two wishes I would have wanted his house.  Rickey was basically a live action version of Richie Rich, though he was a little more frugal (having come from a slightly broken home.)  Looking back though I think I was more influenced by Joel Higgins' performance as Edward Stratton III, who suffered from the worst case of arrested development ever.  That's who I basically am these days, though without the family fortune (inherited from a grandfather who invented the inner tube.)  Add to this the awesome Erin Grey (I never made the Buck Rogers connection as a kid oddly enough), and great guest stars like Jason Bateman and Alfonzo Riberio and you had the perfect kid sitcom.

I was surprised to see Rock Hudson in the Devlin Connection preview, as I didn't realize he was still acting at this point.  I heard his name bandied about by my parents a lot when I was young, but I've never really gotten a chance to watch any of his movies, so he's sort of a name without a face to me.  There's also a preview for Ripley's Believe It or Not, which the perennially scary Jack Palance lent his presence and amazing voice to.  Rounding out the group above is a preview for the show Voyagers!, which I had never heard of.  From what I gather after watching the intro, it's basically the same type of show as Quantum Leap, only with an adventurer and a kid sidekick righting historical wrongs throughout all of history.  It's weird that I missed it though, because it looks like a show that would be right up my alley, and I see that it's on DVD, so I might have to check out and see if Netflix carries it.

    

If you remember back a few posts ago I made a little fuss over another preview, which starred Pricilla Presley, Burgess Meredith and a Chimp (which actually turned out not to be a fictional show, but rather an animal variety show.)  Well, if only I'd waited a little bit I'd have seen that Burgess Meredith took another whack at a sitcom starring along side a bunch of animals (and Sally Struthers, who is actually the true star of the show), and even though it's no Every Which Way but Loose spin-off (instead it was an All in the Family spin-off), I'm sure it was still enjoyable.

We also get a preview of a show that really seemed to hit the 80s on the head, at least fashion wise (like the Zmed), Square Pegs.  Like Locklear, it was the beginning of a long career in television and film for Sarah Jessica Parker, and coincidentally was just released on DVD this past week.

As a side note, has anyone ever seen a more sexually suggestive design for a television special ad than that one starring Sylvester Stallone ever?  Holy crap, he's starring as his own penis in that mock up.  Weird.

    

There's an interesting little ad for Madame's Place, a show with a puppet that I have a hard time keeping separate from that crazy Genesis (or was it Phil Collins solo) video with all the weird looking puppets.  Here's a bit of Madame from youtube.  I guess this was Corey Feldman's shot at stardom between the Bad News Bears sitcom and flicks like the Goonies.  Always glad to see one of the Coreys pop up.

On the page opposite the Madame ad, there is an interesting advert for a science special hosted by Peter Graves and presented by the fine folks at Atari.

Probably the weirdest ad I've seen so far in any of these TV Guides was the small one above called Beefeaters Delight!  From what I can gather the ad is for entire sides of hanging beef at amazing prices, but what I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around is the idea that it's being presented to the general public instead of in another more industry-centric fashion.  I mean, I realize there are a ton of hunters out there that kill, keep and eat entire deer carcasses, but seriously, who invests in an entire half cow?  I mean, that's why we have supermarkets right?  I do have to say that the insert advertising 5lbs of hotdogs or Bacon for $.99 a pound is mighty tempting.  I wonder what that would work out to in 2008 dollars?

Again, because the majority of these TV Guides came out of the Los Angeles area there is a smattering of ads for the Z Channel (as well as the listings in the guide itself.)  I thought I'd take a second to point to the wonderful documentary on Z channel again, as well as the trailer for the doc…

There was also an ad for the Miss Piggy Show special that aired in '82.  Here's a clip via youtube…

    

Unfortunately there weren't as many Saturday Morning Cartoon ads in this issue, just the one above (which is almost identical to the version that ran in comic books at the time.)  As I mentioned above, I think I was being forced to 'take a break' from SMC's at the time to play soccer on the weekends (the strongest piece of evidence is that besides the Looney Tunes I don't recognize any of the shows in the above ad, and I'm only partially familiar with the line-up in the '82 ABC ad as well, never having seen the Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley, or Little Rascals cartoons.)  The Meatballs & Spaghetti cartoon looks pretty weird and is both a little bit of a holdover from the 70s family as a traveling band sort of show, as well as being kind of progressive in terms of the MTV generation and coming before shows like Kidd Video or that Wolfman Jack cartoon.  It wasn't until recently that I discovered all of the very odd sitcom to cartoon spin-offs of the late 70s and early 80s like the Gilligan's Planet cartoon (or the Mork and Mindy/Laverne and Shirley cartoons mentioned above), which featured out favorite castaways building a spaceship and landing on a distant planet, again getting lost/stuck.  I was also surprised by the Pandamonium cartoon, which has a very odd mixture of anthropomorphized animal comedy and action (in the main characters battles with Montragor master of evil.)

Aside from the shows I am familiar with in this issue (like St. Elsewhere above), there are also a bunch that caught my eye, if only because of the actors involved, but like Voyagers! above, some of the plots seem right up my alley as well.  Take for instance the preview for Bring 'em Back Alive, which is an adventure show based on the life of Frank Buck a 30s era animal collector/adventurer starring Bruce Boxleitner (of Tron, Scarecrow & Mrs. King, and Babylon 5 fame.)  Apparently the studio was looking to cash in on the success of Indiana Jones pitting the Buck character against Nazis and junk (not to mention adapting a 30s era adventurer.)  Awesome!  (Here's the intro via youtube.)  Similarly there was another IJ cash-in with Tales of the Gold Monkey starring Stephen Collins as Jake Cutter, a cargo pilot and all around Harrison Ford wannabe (here's the intro.)

There were also some shows that weren't quite up my alley, at least not at the time, like Gavilan (starring Robert Urich post Vega$ and pre Spenser for Hire), or the weird TV spin-off of the 7 Brides for 7 Brothers play and film starring MacGyver himself, Richard Dean Anderson, as well as Peter Horton (who would become a household name in my family later on for his turn on 30 Something), and a young, cute-as-a-button River Phoenix.

Speaking of household names, probably my mother's favorite show of the 80s was St. Elsewhere. Between having a stellar cast (including Howie Mandel, Ed Beagley Jr., Denzel Washington, David Morse, Mark Harmon, G.W. Bailey, Stephen Furst, Ronny Cox, Helen Hunt, and William Daniels just to name a few) and the intense plot lines (Mark Harmon's character contracting AIDS was our family's 'who shot JR'), it quickly became a must watch series.

    

Joining Silver spoons and St. Elsewhere were another couple of family favorites, Family Ties and Cheers (though I saw more episodes of Cheers in syndication later on as I think it was on past my bedtime.)  Next to the Cosby Show, I think Family Ties was the biggest show for me in the 80s and Michael J. Fox is certainly up there as one of my favorite actors from my youth.  If I wanted to be Rickey Schroeder, than I wanted to be best friends with Fox.

I thought it was pretty weird seeing Michael Dudikoff in the Star of the Family preview.  I have a hard time not thinking of him as a second rate action star as I watched the American Ninja films religiously.  It's weird when he pops up in comedies like the above sitcom or Bachelor Party (hmm, another connection to the Zmed.)  Same goes for Ron Glass, who stars as Felix in the fourth incarnation of the Odd Couple (after the play, film, and first sitcom.)  I have to admit that I'm more familiar with Glass from his turn as Reverend Book in Firefly than his time on Barney Miller.

We also have the second attempt to launch the Powers of Matthew Star show.  Apparently Peter Barton had a pyrotechnics accident the year prior which caused the fledgling show to shut down while he recovered.  I wonder if this was the show that helped to typecast Louis Gosset Jr. as the grizzled older mentor character, which he would go on to play throughout his career (in films like Iron Eagle or the Punisher?)

  

1982 also saw the introduction of a show that I've always considered as one part of a trio of action shows that feature a vehicle as the main focal point (and to an extent character) of the series, Knight Rider.  The other two are Airwolf (doing for helicopters what Knight Rider did for Trans Ams) and Street Hawk (ditto for motorcycles.)  I watched the living heck out of KR growing up.  I had the electronic toy and action figure set and would endlessly debate the episodes with friends well into high school.  In the context of this TV Guide Fall Preview issue, it really does seem like 1982 was a stellar year for William Daniels (with this and St. Elsewhere beginning; 2 long running shows.)  I still can't believe that the show is being reconceived for modern audiences though (I missed the pilot movie, and from what I hear thankfully.)

Well, I didn't get this up last week like I'd hoped, but I do plan on doubling up this week.  There's a possibility that I might get to the 1979 issue (as I finally found a cheap copy on eBay), but I might just plow on ahead to 1983.  We shall see.

I'm back this week with the fourth installment of this series on vintage TV Guide fall Preview issues.  As I've explained in the previous posts, though I generally talk mostly about the 80s, I have a weird preoccupation with the Quantum Leap time travel theory, so I decided to include the '77-79 issues as well.  So this week we're going to take a look at the highlights from 1978.  By the time this issue hit newsstands and grocery store checkout lanes I think my parents had just moved into a house in Austin and were ready to stop referring to my age in months.  I'm sure I was still completely unaware of TV in general, probably spending more time on trying to grasp, walk and understand one-syllable words, you know all the basic fundamentals for an enjoyable TV watching experience…

    

As has been the case, the first chuck of the TV Guide is mostly ads, like the obligatory Toyota one above.  What I found interesting in this issue was the sort of sloppy, left-field-ness of the ads.  Take for instance the Anacin ad opposite the Corolla one.  Where is the word Anacin?  In the small print.  Weird.  You'd think it'd be in big block letters over that disturbingly moster/robot looking 'medical' pain diagram.  Heck, you'd think there'd at least be a picture of the pill bottle down at the bottom.  The other ad that really got to me was the one for Vantage cigarettes on the next page featuring a very Photoshop filtered looking image of a one Vince Dougherty (who looks like the lovechild of Kevin Nealon and Tom Snyder.)  I guess this got to me because I'll be honest, I can't figure out who the guy is and why he's telling me all about Vantage giving him the good taste and low tar he desires.  After googling him I came up with a Vince Dougherty that is a member of the Pennsylvania government (which corroborates the ad location), but makes me wonder if he was paid off by the tobacco company to back their brand.  Again, weird, especially set against the article on the new fall lineup of cartoons and children's programming on the facing page.

Back on a more normal level is the great Zenith System 3 television ad up next.  Why doesn't anyone make a TV that feels like a piece of furniture anymore?  That's the kind of setup that can really tie a room together (design and flow-wise.)

One awesome aspect to flipping through these old TV Guides is seeing all of the shows that either didn't make it very long or featured familiar stars on the rise.  The preview for Apple Pie stuck out for me because it starred Dabney Coleman (who I fell in love with after repeatedly watching him help out Henry Thomas as a secret agent in Cloak and Dagger, and terrorize Dolly Parton, Lilly Tomlin, and Jane Fonda in 9 to 5 as a kid), but it wasn't until I took a closer look that I realized the lady in the picture is Rue McClanahan from the Golden Girls.  I'm so used to seeing her a little older that I totally didn't recognize her.

    

It was also pretty cool to see Pricilla Barnes in the Preview for The American Girls making her first big jump from guest starring on a bunch of shows to starring in one of her own (that is before she replaced Suzanne Somers on Three's Company.)  She was one of those actors that I never really put a name to the face until I saw her in Mallrats (playing the topless fortune teller with three nipples) and then in her very disturbing turn in Rob Zombie's the Devil's Rejects (probably the most uncomfortable I've ever felt watching an actress on screen ever.)

Also, I'd like to reiterate just how much I love illustrations in ads, even airbrushed work like in the Right Guard advertisement above.  I wonder where the artwork for that piece is right now?  Probably in a landfill or something, which I think is a shame because it would make a nice piece of pop art.

Up next we've got a preview for a show that I've surprisingly never seen, the original Battlestar Galactica.  Of course it's making a resurgence these days, what with the uber popular reinvisioning that all of the geeks are aflutter about (and yet another show I haven't seen.)  Coming on the heels of the Star Wars explosion, the show (much like Buck Rogers) seemed like it was reaching for something it couldn't quite provide yet (at least not on a TV budget.)  I'm honestly surprised at myself for never taking the time to watch the show as I'm really into 70s sci-fi and Dirk Benedict.  My only real connection to BG were the toys that I saw floating around in the various comic book shops I frequented in the late 80s.  It's also the second time I've thought about Lorne Greene this week after reading about an awesome Bonanza View Master reel that he helped to goof up for the kids back in the day (in an article written by Brian Heiler of Plaid Stallions.)

At first blush I was going to pass up scanning the preview for Mary, but after reading the description I was intrigued.  It wasn't the toned-down, sketch-comedy approach Mary Tyler Moore was going to take at a variety show, but the cast she had lined up to help her out.  Along with some names I don't immediately recognize are Swoozie Kurtz, David Letterman, and Michael Keaton.  Really!?!  I'm dying to see this now as I've always wondered where Michael Keaton learned to hone his genius comic timing.  I didn't think he did stand-up (though you never know), and this would go a long way to explaining it.

Again, as I've mentioned before, I love these old TV Guides because of the wealth of Saturday Morning Cartoon ads they have crammed in them.  Above is the '78 ABC line-up featuring the debut of the Laff-A-Lympics, Challenge of the Superfriends, and Fangface.  Below is a really nice CBS ad featuring some cartoons I've never heard of like Web Woman, Micro Woman and Superstretch (though I have a sneaking suspicion that they're all part of the Space Sentinels cartoon.)  There's also Jason of Star Command, another 70s sci-fi show I've yet to see (but I'm actually excited about as it's a spin-off of Space Academy, which seems 10 times more action packed not to mention starring the one and only Sid Haig, also of Devil's Rejects fame.)

    

Rounding out the cartoon ads is the novel approach by NBC, which made advertising into a board game for the kids.  It's probably the worst board game in the history of the format, but nonetheless it's still interesting.  I've always been curious about the Godzilla cartoon, as it seems like such an odd character for a cartoon series (on the other hand, live action with a man in a suit is no problem.)  Same goes for the Fantastic Four cartoon, which eschewed Johnny Storm in favor of a robot sidekick.

The spot illustration on Us Against the World II is kind of cool if only because it's a prime example of the quick ad drawings done by Jack Davis in the 70s.  From the stories I've read, he'd whip out stuff like this in minutes all day long, getting the work of practically an entire agency's staff done in a day.

Now if there was one show that my parents never missed it was 20/20.  Growing up this was the one show that my parents never argued over, and it always signaled my bedtime as it tended to come on later in the evening during the 80s.  It also signaled the end of a lot of boyhood debauchery and fun as they always seemed to be right on top of the latest dangerous fads, dishing out the possible consequences to my parents before I even had a chance to try and convince them I was capable of handing what ever it was.  I can vividly remember agonizing over asking my parents for some nunchucks and a couple of Chinese throwing stars, and then completely dropping the idea when I walked in on them watching an expose on the dangers of these exact things.  I also never realized that Carl Sagan was a correspondent in its original incarnation.  I wonder if he and Geraldo ever did any stories together, like unlocking the hidden secrets of the universe (only to find a lot of concrete and nothing much of interest…)

    

This issue also contains the premiere and preview of Mork & Mindy (which has been finally getting more DVDs released) and Taxi, as well as the preview of WKRP in Cincinnati.  This reminds me of the review I did this time last year for the truncated WKRP DVD set that came out.  Though I still enjoyed getting a chance to watch the first season, I still wonder what it was like to watch it first run getting all of the original music, and in turn understanding some of the jokes a little more.

Walking right in step with the rest of the weird advertising in this issue is an ad for the Sunbeam Coney Island Steamer (being hawked by none other than Shirley Jones.)  Honestly, I'm not sure if I can think of a more useless and depressing appliance than a hotdog steamer, which only cooks 1-2 hotdogs at a time.  Talk about wasting precious counter space in the kitchen.  I'm going to have to side with Alton Brown when it comes to appliances like this; if you can't use it for ten other things, ditch it.

    

I'm pretty much unfamiliar with the rest of the previewed shows in this issue, though I recognize a lot of the stars (like Connie Sellecca, who would go on to star in the Greatest American Hero, or Scott Baio taking a break in between Happy Days and Joni Love Chachi.)  Coming off of his guest starring role in Soap yet before he was Spenser for Hire, Robert Urich was Det. Dan Tanna in Vega$, and after becoming a football legend Joe Namath tried his hand at acting in the Waverly Wonders.  All in all this was a really fun issue to peruse.

I'll be back next week with the 1982 issue (I still haven't found a copy of the '79 issue that isn't insanely priced on eBay.)

Well, I finally got around to throwing a banner together for these TV Guide posts.  Makes it seem more official I guess.  Anyway, I was planning on getting to the 1982 Fall Preview issue, but I received the '77 and '78 editions in the mail this week, so I think I'll go ahead and get to them first.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I sort of have this odd Quantum Leap-centric idea about the time period I want to cover on this site (nostalgia and ephemera-wise that is.)  I like the idea of covering stuff that has taken place over my own lifetime, much in the way Sam could only leap (time travel for all those non-initiated Quantum Leapers out there) throughout the timeline of his own life.  Honestly, I think this was a coy way that the writers could keep the show relevant for the viewing audience's experiences, straying away from the idea of leaping into medieval or prehistoric times for instance.  It provides a bit of grounding I guess.  Anyway, it worked well for that show, and I think it'll do for me as well.

So with that in mind, I present the highlights from the 1977 TV Guide Fall Preview issue.  Again, the first thing I noticed about this issue (like the 1980 issue) is that the digest itself was folded and stapled instead of being perfect bound like a book.  This makes for very difficult scanning; well difficult while trying not to destroy the issue as well as trying to keep relevant pages together.

    

Also, as I've been noticing with these older issues of the Guide, most of the advertising is set aside for cigarettes and booze, but there are a few other odds and ends that are interesting.  I didn't realize that there was a deluxe version of Kraft Mac & Cheese available in the 70s.  Mainly I subsisted on ramen during my college days, but every once in awhile as a treat I'd pick up the deluxe Mac & Cheese dinner (in particular the one with bacon bits included, you know to simulate eating something a little more substantial.)  At first glance I thought the plated dinner in the ad looked a little weird with the two strips of bacon and the paltry makings of a BLT on the side of the plate, but right now it actually sounds pretty good.  I do have to say that it throws off the illusion of a quick and easy dinner though; I mean if you're going to fry up some bacon and slice a tomato, why not go ahead and cook?

I also dug the heck out of the Quaker Oats cookies ad.  First off I really love spot illustrations in ad work, especially when it's quality like this (are those watercolors?)  But I also love it when the company mascot is front and center without just using the familiar iconographic image (like the Quaker man on the boxes in the coupon.)  It's kind of interesting (and a little weird maybe) to see Quaker man fishing with some kid and his dog while enjoying a picnic of cookies and what I can only hope is milk in that thermos.  It's kind of nice to think that Quaker man enjoys relaxing in his off time with hobbies like this, though I think in this modern world it's a little creepy that he's off alone with a strange kid.  Heck, maybe it's his nephew or grandson, but then for continuity's sake I'd like to see the kid in a Quaker outfit as well.  Also, who developed the crosshatching pattern for peanut butter cookies anyway?  My mom always stuck to this tradition when baking them for our family when I was younger.

The Toyota Celica ad is kind of cool too.  I like that the designers were trying to ape the look and feel of a Mustang with the liftback version of the Celica.  Making them feel a little more American I guess.  Did you realize that car is 'hot'?  On the other hand we have what I believe to be one of the most annoying ads I've seen in a long time (barring TV and radio that is) for the Vivatar 603 pocket camera.  I get that the ad guys were trying to visually put a spin on the idea of other brands offering only 'half a camera' because the new Vivatar offers a build in flash, but because they cut the ad in half and shuffled with around like that on the page it's just annoying to read.

    

As far as the previews go for 1977, there sure are some whoppers as well as some weird ones.  Above we have a preview for a show called Operation Petticoat (based on a movie of the same name) starring John Astin and Jamie Lee Curtis.  I think it's kind of weird to have a sitcom set aboard the claustrophobic confines of a submarine (in particular with the main crux of the story surrounding the sexual tension of the crew vs. a bunch of military nurses that they are transporting.)  After doing a little research though it looks like this was truly a vehicle for John Astin as he directed the first few episodes as well as starred as the sub's captain.  I'm not sure how well the show did though as it only lasted for a season and a half, not to mention that Astin and Curtis jumped ship after the first season.

'77 was a very nautical year as the Love Boat also launched from port.  Growing up there were two shows that it seemed like my sister never missed, Love Boat and Fantasy Island, so I caught my fare share of episodes while hanging out with her.  Looking back, the concept of the show was just marketing genius.  Having the majority of the stories surrounding the plethora of guest stars that came aboard each show is almost a way of having sweeps episodes year round.  I wish the studios weren't being so stingy with the DVDs that finally came out this year though (only releasing half a season of a 31 year-old show and charging full season rates is absolutely piratanical I tells ya.)

The TV set in the ad adjacent to the Love Boat preview looks a hell of a lot like the TV my family had until I turned sixteen.  Same faux-wood box, and channel tuners.  I wonder if TVs are being built that can last 16 years like these old monsters did?  I doubt it.

I absolutely love the Camel ad in this issue.  It screams action, adventure, and maybe a little James Bond, though only if an actor that looked like a cross between Tom Selleck and Patrick Duffy played Bond.  I'm as interested as that bikini-clad assistant and the bearded seaman in what Camel man has found in the depths of the sea!  I am seriously considering picking up smoking now…

With these older TV guides I've certainly hit the Saturday Morning cartoon ad jackpot as all three major networks make a showing.  Above we have the line-ups for NBC and CBS including shows like The Adventures of Muhammad Ali, the New Archies and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Space Academy.  I really dig the illustration done for the Space Academy show as it makes it seem ten thousand times more thrilling and action packed than the actual Filmation show was.  It is kind of odd that the CBS ad is a truncated version of the ad they ran in comic books at the time (which you can see here in this post I did awhile back), and it really shows in how poorly it was translated to the digest size format of the TV Guide.  It's also sort of weird because the times the shows are listed to air are different.  It raises a question about whether comic book printings used to feature regional ads or if this was just a mistake.  I can see the line-ups jumbling around from city to city, so the different TV Guides might have slightly different ads, but I always figured comic books were distributed country wide with the same ads.  Anyone out there know?

    

Rounding out the cartoon ads is this beauty from ABC featuring one of my all time favorite shows, the Hanna Barbera Laff-A-Lympics.  I never seemed to catch this show at home when it aired in re-runs, but I swear, every single time my family was out of town or on the road it seemed like the only cartoon that I'd find on TV in the various motels we'd stay at.  It brings back a lot of fond memories of waking up to the show, and then off to the complimentary Ho-Jo's continental breakfast.  I could so go for some plain scrambled eggs, bacon, and corn flakes while watching Blue Falcon and Dynomutt face off against Yogi Bear and Quick Draw McGraw in a battle of river rafting right about now.  Also, I totally missed out on everything Kroft while growing up and I am dying to see the adventures of Bigfoot and Wildboy…

One of the best parts in picking up these old TV Guides is getting a feel for what a week in the life of a 1977 TV viewer was like.  I get a little of this watching shows like Freaks and Geeks (hearing Sam, Bill, and Eli pontificate on catching the latest Three's Company, Welcome Back Kotter, and Bionic Woman episodes), but it's really neat to see it for myself in an artifact like this.  Again, I put out a plea to studios everywhere, get over your stupid money grubbing rights issues and put some of these shows out on DVD!  I need to see Jamie Sommers and her bionic dog fight crime.  At least they finally started releasing decent sets of shows like Welcome Back Kotter (instead of the pointless 4-episode best of discs.)  The following page is just as exciting as the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew face off against Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein, while later on in the evening the Bionic Man is captured by Killer Sharks!  You never see stuff like this anymore.  When was the last time Meredith was captured by sharks on Grey's Anatomy?  When was the last time a bionic dog was introduced into a show's cast?  Makes me miss shows like Buffy as it was about the closest we got to stuff like this…

There was also an ad for an odd show called Lucan about a boy raised by wolves.  At first blush I figured this was a werewolf show, but I think it's more of a raised by animals deal.  I guess they should have thought twice before using the dripping blood font which just confused and unnecessarily excited me.


    

I thought it was interesting that the editors at TV Guide were keen on getting feedback from viewers in the premiere of CHiPs, going so far as to provide a little mail in coupon.  I wonder why this show and not all of them?  Were they being paid by NBC to facilitate it?  Well if I could have at the time, I so would have written "Heck Yeah!" on the back and sent it in.  I talked about my love for this show when I shared my set of CHiPs sticker cards a while back.  I can’t wait to pick up the second season…

I was surprised to see an ad for the network premiere of the Making of Star Wars so soon after it hit theaters.  I'd have to say that for once, a crazy claim on an ad has actually stood the test of time as well.  I'd be willing to wager that Star Wars still holds the title as the most popular movie of all time.  I also thought it was cool to see an ad for the season opener of Wonder Woman which boasts the jump in time from the 40s to a modern setting.  I watched my fare share of this show in re-runs growing up and it never dawned on me that it was originally set during WWII.  Shows how on-the-ball I was as a kid.  Oh and lets all make sure not to miss the Muppet show (I really liked that the original owner of this issue circled all the shows they wanted to make sure not to miss.)

Much like my infatuation with the Rodeo Girl TV movie from the last post I made, I am now equally as intrigued by the disturbing ad for Curse of the Black Widow.  I am so speechless.  A spider-woman with huge boobs and creepy human appendages!  Wow!  I bet it has nothing to do with gigantic female spiders, but if it does, please somebody get me a copy of this film…

There's also another, much better though just as small, ad for Sha-Na-Na in this issue.  Again, what was the draw of 50s nostalgia during the 70s and 80s?  I guess it's no different than my current 80s obsession.  Also, on the facing page, what’s up with that weirdly sincere cigarette ad that's playing off of a cover of the Saturday Evening Post?

    

There were a lot of cool shows starting up in 1977, but the one I've probably watched the most of over the years is Soap.  My mom introduced me to this sitcom when we'd both stay up late on the weekends during the late 80s and 90s watching Soap in syndication.  I was hooked on all of the spoofy storylines and loved seeing all the actors who I knew from their later work in this earlier hilarious show.  I'm pretty sure I even watched its spin-off, Benson, before I realized that this show existed.

 

Last but not least we have a couple of previews for some more sci-fi oriented shows that debuted in '77, The Man From Atlantis and the TV version of Logan's Run.  Though I doubt it's as cool as I'm making it out in my head, I would really like to see TMFA as I've always been curious about the idea of a live action version of either Namor or Aquaman (though I'm completely un-interested in the pilot to the show that they tried to pawn off on us last year.)  Before Dallas and Step By Step, Patrick Duffy sported webbed hands and feet in four TV movies and finally this show, battling mad scientists and criminals.  Who'd of thunk it.  Also, on a totally unrelated note, I just realized that all of the preview pictures in this issue have a spotlight shining on the stars.  Nice design touch TV Guide...

Next week I'll be back, most assuredly with the '78 issue of the TV Guide Fall Preview…

About a year or so ago I stumbled upon something pretty cool on eBay that I thought would be fun to share on Branded in the 80s, namely an almost complete run of TV Guide Fall Preview issues for the eighties (1981-1990.) I'd still like to locate the issues from 77-80, but instead of putting this off any longer, I thought I'd go ahead and start posting the highlights from these issues.

My family was TV Guide-oholics while I was growing up. First off we didn't have a television with a remote until I was in high school, and we didn't have a remote controlled cable box until a couple years before that. Up until then, all throughout the 80s we had those old cable boxes that had a slide lever that you pushed to the right to get into the higher numbered channels and to the left to get to the lower numbered channels. It was one of those types of boxes that you family's drunk acquaintances would swear could pick up the pay channels for free if you just stuck a playing card between the lever and the receptor inside. Ours were typically connected to the TV by an extra long cord that was always stretched across the living room so that my dad could toggle through the channels while he lay on the couch. Anyway, because channel surfing was a little more archaic and because none of us cared for the one channel that would flash programming for all the other channels (what's become the TV Guide channel oddly enough), we lived by our weekly TV guide digest.

On Satudays my mom would come home with the weekly groceries and I'd always dive into the bags looking for our copy of the guide so that I could flip straight to the 'Movies' section to see what was playing on the pay cable channels. We only ever subscribed to HBO and I was always dying to see what was going to be on that week, not to mention lamenting what I couldn't see on Showtime or Cinemax. Sure, we also received the HBO guide by mail once a month, but my parents usually swiped it up and it would soon disappear never to be found again. I would also roughly plan out my Saturday morning, trying to come up with the best way to navigate through the cartoons on the various channels, though ultimately I would always end up sitting in front of the TV and switching between toons, mid-show. Of course, the best issue only came out once a year, the Fall Preview edition which showcased all of the new programming on the main three networks.

As I mentioned above, the earliest issue in the lot I picked up was the 1981 edition. I was only four at the time, so I doubt I flipped though this particular issue, and with a few exceptions, I don't remember many of the new shows that were offered up. I still can't help but smile while looking though it though. Actually, another interesting aspect of the TV Guide is that it's geared towards local markets, so every week there should be at least 100 to 200 different editions depending on where you live in the country. Though most of the up front and cable material is the same, there are some interesting bits of local flair in the middle. Most of the issues in the stack I purchased were from California, and in the small region that was actually lucky enough to pick up Channel Z (there's a great documentary on Z Channel that gives background on the whole phenomenon), so it's kind of a kick to see what was playing through out part of the 80s.

Anyway, without further to do, here are a bunch of thumbnail that link to larger scans from the issue…

      

I think it's weird that the artist who mocked up the cover chose to put a ring on what I assume is a lady's hand drawing back the right side of the curtains. I don't know why I find it weird, but I do. Though there were plenty of cigarette and liquor ads, the one that caught my eye first which a whopping 6-page Sears spread featuring all sorts of appliances and electronics. From $400 dollar monstrously sized microwave ovens (though they allude could cook a whole turkey, though I wouldn't want to eat it) and surprisingly modern-priced washer and dryer units, to pricey TVs (with Super Chromix picture tubes) and $800 Betamax players. Interesting side note on the Super Chromix picture tubes, I distinctly remember putting my face up so close to the TV glass that I could only see the weird green, blue, red color bars. I always wondered how it could look so good from far away and so simple up close. Ah the wonders of science and technology, and stupid kids smudging their grubby faces on TV screens…

      

I didn't scan in every TV show preview page, but I tried to snag the ones with some recognizable faces, like the above show King's Crossing with a young Linda Hamilton. The one show out of this entire book that I wish I had paid attention to at the time was the show The Powers of Matthew Star. It sounds like an 80s version of Smallville, except the dude had a kickass spear!

      

I also tried to scan in shows that have since become pop culture icons, like Simon and Simon above. Believe it or not, I have never seen a single episode of that show. My wife is ashamed of me.

I also thought it was kind of weird how openly liquor used to be advertised with soda brands. The above Bacardi ad is only one of like three in this issue alone that has major brand sodas in them, advertising the beauty of a mixed drink. Does this ever happen anymore?

Of course I was all over the Saturday Morning cartoon ads in the TV Guides I bought. These make wonderful companion pieces to the ads I've already posted from the various comics books of the 80s. This one above fills in the 1981 ABC gap in my original post. There was also a tiny ad for one of the ABC Weekend Special cartoons which I vaguely remember catching every once in awhile…

      

There was also a nice Solid Gold ad (featuring Andy Gibb and Olivia Newton-John, who has been a crush of mine every since I saw Xanadu this past year.) For some reason, though no one in my family really seems the type to have watched it, I remember having Solid Gold on in the background on the weekends while we had our big family meals (typically either steak or burgers.)

      

Now there's a show that I have weird memories of, Sha-Na-Na. Actually, my memories are all fragmented and for some odd reason seem to be getting mixed up with both Scott Baio and Hee-Haw of all things. I remember the weird song they'd sing where the one dude was pumping his guns and twisting his wrist and fist outward and inward. Again, why aren't there compilations of stuff like this on DVD. I don't need a season of Sha-Na-Na, just an episode to stir up some more truthful memories. Sigh.

Also, we have another Saturday Morning cartoon ad, ah, excuse me, a Saturdazzle ad. Man, to wake up early on a Saturday morning to catch Fat Albert on Saturdazzle, tizzle my dizzle and the hippity hoppity and junk. Anyway, you can find a different version of this ad from a comic book here.

Above we also have yet another show I'm sorry I missed and is now sadly gone (though I bet there's stuff on youtube), Fridays. Would you look at that young afro-clad Larry David! I wonder what hyjinks Andy Kaufman was getting into that week? Btw, I love love love Mark Blankfield, he was great in the Incredible Shrinking Woman…

        

Above we have some more fun preview pages showcasing the beginnings of the Fall Guy, Gimmie a Break, a running try at a series by Joel Higgins (who would later cement his fame in Silver Spoons), and a last ditch effort by Gabe Kaplan (who should have known better than to try and follow up Welcome Back Kotter with anything.) There are also a few fun ads, including one for Dial soap with some fun illustrations, a very conniving cigarette ad, and some old packaging for Nuti-Grain cereals.



Last but not least, we have a preview for Open All Night starring Bubba Smith (who was making a name for himself acting-wise in the Police Academy movies), and George Dzundza (who I believe was partnered with Chris Noth on the first season of Law & Order.)

Anyway, that basically the highlights from this issue. It was really cool to get a look at the listings even though they weren't my particular local stations growing up. It was cool to see what re-runs were playing at the time as well as all of the cartoons and such. Hopefully I'll be showcasing another issue each week until I've made my way through the rest of the 80s (and I might hit a couple from the 90s just for good measure.)

Well, I'm starting to feel a little better about my posting habits after the holiday season. I know it's only a couple of posts a week, but it feels like I'm building up a little head of steam anyway. What I really need to do is to get back to my Cartoon Commentary posts, but all in good time. Anyway, here we are again at the end of the week, and lately that means another edition of Peel Here, and if you've been paying attention this month, or care to scroll down the page you can see that I've been sharing my collection of Garbage Pail Kids sticker sets. Today I'm going to keep plowing through the collection with the complete 5th series that was, like the last two, release in 1986.

This was the series that I remember marked the height of my collecting. My mother surprised me one day by bringing home an entire box of packs that I spent the rest of the evening opening and sorting on the living room floor. Not only was this the first time that I received so many cards all at once, it was also the first time that I acquired an almost complete set of the stickers. Whereas the 4th series seemed hard to complete because of the rarer triplet cards, and the 3rd was difficult because we had a hard time finding any, it was pretty darn easy with the 5th considering I had a whole set plopped in my lap. I was however, missing a couple 'sister' cards, and I never found either variation on card 180, which always bugged me. How could I still be missing cards even after getting an entire box of packs? Well to my young mind it seemed like a travesty. Well years later with the power of the Internet and eBay I've finally managed to secure a complete set which I'll now share…



Like I mentioned last week, this set seems to mark a changing point in the overall tone of the GPK series, which seemed to become a little more vicious with each new set. If you compare the concepts in this series to the last you see that there are more stickers depicting self-mutilation, cannibalism or violence. Now before this seems like I'm on an anti-GPK rant here, please don't get me wrong. I don't have a problem with this tonal shift and I don't think it's all that much of an issue socially, I just think that it's interesting to note that conceptually the series started to get a little more vicious and disturbing. I think the this is illustrated in the concepts, where in the first four sets it was relatively rare to see characters doing disturbing stuff (as opposed to having it wrought on them), yet with series 5 and on there are more and more instances of characters causing the violence. For instance there are two relatively disturbing images in the second series that feature characters getting shot (57 a&b and 82 a&b), again by outside forces, yet in series five the two most disturbing images (personally and violence-wise) feature one character shoving a sword down his throat and out the back of his head (167 a&b) and another hanging himself (181 a&b) (again characters actively being violent.) Again, I'm not trying to come off prudish, it's just an observation.



For this series the designers opted to switch from the wanted poster card backs of the last two series to a very G.I. Joe-packaging-influenced file card concept featuring characters from the 1st and 2nd series stickers. Again, Tom Bunk drew the card backs, while the art duties on the card fronts were split between Bunk (12 paintings) and John Pound (28 paintings.) The designers also decided to go back to having two different puzzle posters on the card backs.



Something else that I thought was kind of interesting was that I noticed that a lot of concepts were being done again and again. This series contains six concepts that were almost note perfect for cards in the 1st and 2nd series sets. There seems to be a lot of repetition of the following concepts: Baby with horrible teeth, a doll with it's stuffing coming out, a character puking up all sorts of nastiness, a character playing with their own snot, a character getting electrocuted, a character as a trash can of some sort, or a characters that is either a toilet or is swimming/sitting in/etc a toilet. Just a thought. Also, we get to see another character above (Windy Winston) that made it into the GPK movie.









In the above scan we can also see one of the more common error cards, the off set printing (180b) which ends up having the image shifted over too far to one side.

If I had to pick a card that I thought was the most disturbing in this set, I think I've have to settle on sticker 185 a&b. There's something that just screams wrong about a tiny named GPK slathered in mustard and put on a bun like a hotdog. Is it just me?



















Next week I’ll finish off January with the complete 6th series. Next month we'll hit 7-10 which will finish off my collection of GPK stickers completely.

So for the time being this post will finish off my collection of Hostess comic ads. Like I've mentioned before, I think there are still about 30 or 40 more ads that I haven't been able to find yet, so that'll probably be a project I work on over this coming year. Right now though, lets take a look at the last 10 DC ads in what I like to call the Essential DC Hostess comic ads Vol. 3, Part 2: Cupcakes 1975-1980.

Shazam in the Cupcake Caper 1975


Wow, that is one straightforward Hostess ad. Bam, cupcakes are missing. Bam, Shazam restates the obvious. Bam, he stops the brilliant Cupcake Caper. Bam. BAM BAM BAM. If nothing else, I'm beginning to find some possible context clues for why the last Shazam ad was written so (to me) oddly. So does young Billy Batson work at the TV station? If so that would go a long way to explaining why he was kidnapped in that ad.

Superman Saves the Earth 1976


Man I never realized that Superman sat in on such universe plotting council meetings. Thank god he eats cupcakes and not Spam or the whole planet might have gone up in a puff of smoke that fateful day. Also, I love how in comics alien worlds are often delineated by the lack of any sort of atmosphere, having only a vast blanket of stars in the sky. As silly as it seems, it really is a nice artistic short cut.

Batman in the Muse 1977


Besides the fact that Batman and Robin are stepping out attending a concert in full bat-suit glory, I really dig this ad. In particular I love the switch that the Muse makes from internal monologue to exclaiming his love for Hostess cupcakes mid thought. I wonder when in '77 this ad was written as there's a nod to Elvis in it. Not a good year for the king.

Batman and Robin in Birds of a Feather 1977


You know, I would have loved to see this ad end with Batman and Robin watching as Pigeon Person's plan crumbled when she realized that even an army of pigeons can't pick up a mountain…

Batman in Sable Lady 1977


"That's giving it to her on the old chinchilla…" Um, okay.  Holy inappropriate Batman!

Wonder Woman in the Maltese Cupcake 1977


I have absolutely no idea what just happened in that comic. Seriously.

Superman in the Big Fall 1978


Wow, that was total overkill Clark! You know, you could have just stopped the elevator from falling and gently let it come to rest at the bottom of the elevator shaft. There was no call in flying it out of a building, and in assuming that it would burst through the roof without hurting the occupants who were so blissfully unaware of the danger because they had their mouths full of chocolate-y goodness. Sheesh, that seems more in line for a Hulk Hostess ad…

Wonder Woman vs. the Cheetah 1978


Well that was kind of a mean trick to play on the cats. Lure your way in and then slap them around instead of the master. I guess it was bad form to have a cheesecake cat-fight in a 70s cupcake ad.

Batman in Someone is Kidnapping the Great Chefs of Gotham City 1979


…and this is why America doesn't give in to terrorist's ransom demands. I wonder if the networks would ever stoop to this level of advertising on TV. I'd love to see a series of 24 one-minute Hostess ads starring Jack Bauer. In the last minute it would be revealed that Twinkie the kid wasn't a terrorist, he was honestly trying to transport three tons of Hostess products overseas in hopes of balancing the world economy or something. I'm going to get cracking on writing those so that I can pitch them if the writer's strike continues. I'll make a mint.

Wonder Woman and the Barron 1980


Wouldn't this ad have been that much cooler if instead of a generic chocolate vampire wannabe called the Baron, Count Chocula was the villain? Man, new idea, advertisement crossovers, like the Secret Wars, but with cartoon advertising icons. Again, another idea that'll make me rich…

I almost didn't make my Peel Here deadline this week, but I did plenty of last minute scanning at the zero hour so here we go.

In the continuation of my two-month long celebration of my Garbage Pail Kids collection I present another complete set of stickers, this time the original 4th series. Well, almost complete set of stickers. When this set first came out there were a few cards that had their names changed in future printings (my assumption being it was for legal reasons as the changes were all of proper names, three of which were almost if not unchanged from the source), which resulted in 4 sets of 'triplets'.

I remember freaking out a little when I noticed this as a kid. I guess I was still a little wet behind the ears and hadn't yet realized that there was such a thing as rarity or errors in products. This is actually the second time that Topps tried replacing an already circulated card, as there was a variation on the 2nd series Schizo Fran card (which was turned into Fran Fran, again assuming, but this time for reasons of taste.) So even in the age of the internet I've yet to finally complete my 4th series collection as I'm missing 3 of the four triplets rare cards.

Though I started collecting with the 3rd series, it wasn't until the 4th was released that I really became GPK crazy. It was also the first time that I ended up seeing GPKs in stores. Before I was reliant on any stickers my parents managed to bring after visiting the local gas stations, which I never seemed to be present for. My mom would take me with her while she did her weekly grocery shopping and I always made my way up to out local 7-Eleven, but neither every carried the coveted sticker cards. It wasn't until my mom happened to take me on a trip to our semi-local Woolworth's that I spied my first box of stickers by the registers. I specifically remember my mom giving me a couple of dollars to pick up a handful of packs, which I almost didn't buy.

While browsing the store I also found a bunch of GPK school folders, which featured artwork from the (to me) extremely mysterious 1st series. In my trading with friends I managed to score a few cards from the 2nd series as well as getting a chance to see the majority of the set, but no one I knew had any 1st series cards (I wouldn't see any for another ten years, not until my first comic book convention.) Anyway, I really wanted the folders, but I only had two dollars and had to choose between the two. I ultimately chose the 4th series packs because it seemed more important to not only have the actual sticker cards, but also to get my hands on some that my friends hadn't seen yet.



As I mentioned above, there are some triplet sets in this series, the first of which was the original B card in this set named Woody Allen. What I've found kind of weird collecting these again as an adult is that the whole gimmick of the multiple names is pretty much lost on me. Though I've made it a point to try and find both versions of each card, ultimately it seems kind of silly to seek out and spend money on an additional sticker that has the same art and only a different name. It never occurred to me as a kid that this was totally a gimmick to keep kids buying packs of cards long after they'd completed a set just to get each name variation. It's not like all Cabbage Patch Kids were twins right.

Anyway, this has been the biggest stumbling block in tracking down the rare triplet cards in this series it just seems way too completist. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I seem to remember having a lot of trouble trying to explain the twin concept to my mother when I was younger. I'm sure she was thinking the same thing I am now. Now if I could only understand her mindset when she'd step all over my mint condition comic books and not seem to care…



Anyway, the set came out in 1986 and featured 42 different pieces of artwork with a total of 86 different name variations. There was also one less puzzle poster on the card backs, but it consisted of 21 instead of 18 cards. Also, returning after the last set were more Wanted Posters, most of which were again reworked from the original 1975 Topps sticker set, yet with two new Wanted cards that hadn’t been produced before.



This time around John Pound still handled the majority of the front card art duties clocking it at 25 paintings. Tom Bunk again helped to share the front art duties (though he only contributed 9 pieces) as well as doing all of the art for the new Wanted Posters. This time a third artist came on board doing paintings for the card fronts named David Berg (with 8 paintings). I'm not sure but this might be the Berg that worked for MAD magazine. You can see on the checklist at the bottom of the series 4 entry on Barren Aaron's GPK reference page which artists did which cards. All of the above cards were painted by John Pound, who (as I said in the last Peel Here) is probably my favorite GPK artist, if not flat out my favorite artist.





Though my favorite cards tend to be some of the ones with more horror themed artwork, I found that I'm also enjoying a lot of cards that I didn't like all that much as a kid. For instance, in the above set (again, all done by Pound) I really didn't like 134 a&b as a kid, probably because it's a little more muted with a lot of earth tones, not to mention that the beatnik joke was completely lost on me. Now though I'm sort of astounded by the level of detail in the background, while not jam packed, it's pretty rich compared to a lot of the other cards that are pretty space on BG. I also dig the Walt Witless pun-y name and still can't believe that the character is smoking a hand rolled cigarette (or a joint, take your pick.)




Again, as a comparison to my interest in the concepts of these cards as I've grow older are cards 135 a&b and 137 a&b. As a kid my favorite card in the set, bar none, was 137. Not only was it bloody and feature a skull, it was also very simple. Of course, it didn't hurt that I also found this card in my elementary school library stuck in a copy of Bunicula that I check out of the library (yea, free sticker!), so it's always had a fond place in my memory.

Growing up though I'm more drawn to card number 135 as I've become a huge fan of both Rocky Horror and the idea of grown men (I'm working on the idea that he's older because of all the stubble) in drag, ala Monty Python, et al. Again, as a kid this card was completely lost on me. I think it's truly awesome that the designers and artists were brave enough to do this, to plant ideas in these sets that they knew would go way over the heads of most of the kids buying them. To me this is a sign that they were hoping that kids would come back to these later on and develop a whole new appreciation for them. Heck, if nothing else, it has worked for me. It can also be kind of subtle too, as with card 138. Most kids are going to like this because it has a kick ass alien on it blasting a ray gun into to air. On the other hand it's also a reference to Topps' roots and their Mars Attacks! card set.





Something that I found a little interesting in this set was that Tom Bunk was losing some of the plastic rigidity in his art, softening up the faces and shapes a little (you can see this in his art on card number 141.) As for David Berg, he has a style that is very close to Pound's, though there's an aspect to them that makes them feel a little off to me. He did cards 142-147 here and below. I can't tell exactly, but it feels like his pieces are a little flatter, as if he wasn't quite getting the same softness because he isn't blending the colors quite the same way as Pound. This isn't to say that I don't like his artwork; in fact it's probably some of the better 'on-model' work in the series as a whole. In particular, I really like the art on number 147 at it gets to the softness I like in my GPKs.

In the above scan you can see a spot for a missing card.  This is where the variation on card number 158b would be.  The triplet card is named Crystal Gale.

Again, above there should be a triplet for card number 164 (b), which is named Salvadore Dolly.

I'll be back next week with the complete 5th series, which marks a turning point in the tone of the GPK stickers. From that point on the cards start getting a little nastier and a little more violent.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I thought it would be fun to spend the next couple months concentrating on my collection of Topps Garbage Pail Kids sticker cards for the Peel Here column. Far and away these were my favorite stickers growing up easily edging out scratch and sniff or puffy stickers and I've had a collection going for awhile, so I have plenty to share.

I thought it would be fitting to share the set in which I was introduced to the cards back in 1986, which was the 3rd series. I don't think I ever managed to complete a full set of cards growing up, but I came pretty close with the 3rd and 4th series. It wasn't until I first moved in with my girlfriend (now my wife) back in 2001 that I finally managed to score a complete set of the entire 3rd series thanks to the wonder of eBay.

Before I get into the set proper, I thought I'd mention that even though these are essentially stickers, as a kid I pretty much never ever peeled them off of their backing. Collecting GPK felt a lot like collecting baseball cards, though I hadn't discovered anything as organized as mylar pages or card boxes (plastic or cardboard) yet. I kept the collection in a few Ziploc bags, one for each series and a couple for my doubles. My adult collector's mind completely reels at the thought of a naïve younger version of my self, bopping around the neighborhood with a Ziploc bag full of stickers. I'm sure all the corners were rounded or bent, and I imagine a little dirty from my handling them all the time. I wouldn't get an anal collector's awakening for a few more years, not until I started collecting comics and I learned the art of bagging and boarding.

Anyway, I'd also like to mention that there are a few really great GPK resources out there in interwebnetsland, one of the best being Barren Aaron's Garbage Pail Kids Reference Guide. Aaron has done a pretty exhaustive job cataloging and annotating all of the GPK releases, from tracking down which artists did the cards to the various miss-printings and print run variations.  Here's his page on the third series.

So, on to the actual stickers. There are 41 separate pieces of artwork in the set (for a total of 82 cards), which also featured a couple different variations on the card backs. There were two different card back puzzles, and 18 different 'Wanted Posters' (which I'll talk about later.)



One of the aspects of GPKs that I love the most is John Pound's great artwork. He was the main artist on the series up until this series, painting the entire 1st and 2nd series sets. On this series he shared the load with fellow GPK artist Tom Bunk (which did all of the artwork for the card backs in the first three sets.) Also, if you are unfamiliar with GPK, all of the cards come in pairs (though later on there would be some triplets), each of which features a different pun-y name (and assigned either an A or B by the number.) John Pound was responsible for these first five pairs, one of which is probably in my top 10 favorite GPKs (Hot Head Harvey and Roy Bot.) Also, all of the cards in the initial run of GPK series in the 80s were numbered consecutively after the last set, so this set starts off where the last left of with card numbers 84 A&B.

One of the things that I love about these cards is that I didn't get all of the jokes when I was a kid, so now that I'm older there are a lot of references and gags that I can appreciate now. The first time I realized this was with the Hot Head Harry and Roy Bot cards. I've mentioned before that I really didn't watch any of the Robotech cartoon growing up because it came off as way too soap opera-y and boring, but later on in high school I was addicted to the show. It was then that I had a eureka moment one day, realizing that these GPK stickers weren't just a gag on robots, but that they were modeled off of the Veritech fighters from Robotech (specifically the super armored version.)



As far as the card backs go, like I mentioned above there are a few different variations. There were two sets of puzzle pieces, a handful of checklists, and these Wanted Posters (with art by Tom Bunk, and which were written by Mark Newgarden and Art Spiegelman, yup the Maus Spiegelman.) These Wanted Posters are actually reworked versions of a set of Topps sticker cards from 1975 called Wanted Stickers. All of the art was re-worked by Tom Bunk and the text was beefed up a bit.

These sorts of card backs (the Wanted Posters) were always a little weird to me. On the one hand it was cool to see sort of adult versions of GPK-like characters, but the concept of the blank spot to write in a name bugged me. This was always something to look out for when trading, making sure no one had written on the cards (now that I think about it I guess I always had a little bit of the anal collector in me.)



The majority of this next group was done by Tom Bunk (with the exception of 92 A&B which was done by Pound.) Though they are working in very similar styles (no doubt due to the idea of staying On-Model), there are slight differences, little flares that point to one or the other. The biggest difference that I can point to is that Bunk's artwork comes off a little harder, with a little bit more of a hard plastic feel to it whereas Pound's paintings are softer. This is probably getting way too deep into the ideas behind the series and stuff, but I've always felt that Pound was playing off of the Cabbage Patch Kids parody a little more, yet also giving a little more life to the figures. Bunk on the other hand seems to be achieving a more fake hard doll kind of feeling, which in the later series would take over as the dominate model for the characters (so much so that almost every character for awhile featured cracks in their shell, an aspect that I believe was settled on after a lawsuit between Topps and the Cabbage Patch Kids company to differentiate them from each other.) Bunks artwork also tended to be a little sparser, with either a two toned background separated by a gradient shift, or some simple set pieces, while Pound's cards were set in very detail rich environments for the most part.

The cards above are also a great example of how varied the GPK sets used to be. None of these concepts feature any blood, poo, pee, snot, or puke, all of which are present on most of the new series cards, and typically combined in every card. Also, only one of the five features any sort of violence, the rest are as varied as varied can be. This is something that would slowly be worked out of the sets as time went on.





Here's another great example between the two artists with cards 93 (Pound) and 94 (Bunk.) Though it's worked into the concept with Bunk's, you can really see the hardness he brings to the set, while Pounds is much more elastic.

Now another aspect to GPKs that I adored as a kid was all of the cards that fit into the horror genre. Beth Death here is an example of the type of card that I loved.





Sort of going along with that idea are all of the creepy cards as well. Though I suffer from an incredible arachnophobia, I always loved the cards featuring spiders. This set also features Ali Gator who would later make it into the cast of the GPK movie.

















According to Barren Aaron's Reference site, two of the cards above (117 & 118) were worked on by a third artist Mia (whose last name is unknown.) I can certainly see it in the artwork for 117 as it's one of the most off-model cards in the set.
Back 8










All in all I really love this set (though it's the beginning of the decline in interesting concepts after stellar 1st and 2nd series.) As a kid I ended up getting most of my 3rd series cards through trading as I was relying on my mother and father to pick up the odd pack for me, which was only every so often. There weren’t any stores by me that carried GPKs, something that bugged me the entire time I collected them.

Next week I'll be tossing up scans of the almost complete 4th series.

So, as I mentioned last week, this edition of Peel Here marks the 1-year anniversary of the column and a slightly more focused Branded in the 80s to boot. I'm not really patting myself on the back here as much as I'm surprised that I stuck with it this long. What's kind of weird is that I'm not even really a sticker enthusiast, at least not in terms of actively collecting or what not.

Anyway, for sort of a special edition of this column I thought it would be fun to share something a little different. One of my goals when I started this was to try and get my hands on an actual sticker collection, something that really illustrates what sticker collecting was like in the late 70s and throughout the 80s. In my minds eye I could see something very similar to what I had growing up, which was an old photo album, the kind with the horribly gaudy covers of either flowers or some sort of wall paper-like print, and filled with sticky pages covered in cellophane. I wanted to share something that felt a little less "mint on card", something that had a little more love attached to it (at some point at least.) As luck would have it I managed to find a very inexpensive auction on eBay that had two photo books filled with stickers, so over this week I thought I'd share them.



When I opened up the shipping box this came in I was immediately excited (there weren't pictures in the auction I won), as the photo album was exactly as I pictured it, goofy wallpaper print and jam-packed with stickers. There were even a few St. Patrick's day stickers adorning the cover.

On the inside front cover there are some interesting stickers. Surrounding the large puffy Tweety sticker (which is pretty well on model so I think it might be official) there are a bunch of smaller Looney Tunes stickers with some questionable artwork. The Elmer Fudd isn't that bad, but there's something shifty about Bug's eyes. I'm not positive, but I believe these puffy stickers are from the late 70s, probably 79 or 80. There are also some generic fruit and animal stickers, which feel like they're from around the same time period. Intermixed with these puffy stickers are a bunch of quote and word stickers which were issued as some sort of premium (be it cereal or something like that) as I had these very ones in my own sticker book as a kid. They also came with a set of alphabet stickers, which we'll see later in this album…



Of course, any 80s sticker collection wouldn't be complete without at least a few unicorns…



There are also some very weird 3-D cloth stickers on this page at the bottom. They also have little sparkly plastic "jewels" imbedded in them. I'm sort of curious about what came with this set of stickers as there are a few that seem very fantasy oriented (what with the castle, the dragon, and what appears to be dragon's breath), but then there is the alligator. Kind of weird.

Then there are what I believe are some puffy stickers which were meant to be placed in a journal or diary judging from the cute little sayings printed on them…



On the below page we have a repeat of the Bugs Bunny sticker from the inside front cover, though much bigger and much more bootleg looking. What is kind of weird about this sticker is all of the little stickers that surround it depicting oddly colored and miss printed food items (and a Yosemite Sam.) I'm pretty sure these stickers all came from the same set, which is really kind of weird, even for bootlegs.



On the next page we get our first glimpse of a really odd sticker variety that I wasn't aware of until I started scouring eBay for stickers last year, puffy scratch and sniff stickers…



Luckily, who ever started this collection received a ton of them, so on the following pages we'll get to see many more examples. I'm not sure if time wasn't all that kind to the design, as you can really see the thick layer of scented material on these, or if they always looked like this. Hey maybe that's why they weren't as popular (at least in my limited estimation), maybe because they looked pretty ragged from the get go.

I think it's kind of weird how the design in the artwork ranges from something that looks a lot like the artwork featuring the Campbell's Soup Kids (the Hawaiian kids in the pineapple stickers) to some very generic looking Precious Moments kids (in the orange and lemon stickers below.)


The one thing that I really liked about this collection is that it really hit on a lot of the various styles of stickers available at the time, including these googlie eyed Halloween puffy stickers…





If I had to guess I'd say that this was the collection of a little girl as most of the stickers seem to be in the cuter vein. Another nail in the coffin is this collection of Cabbage Patch Kids puffy stickers. Sure, there were some boys who had these dolls growing up, but I still think it's a safe bet that this was a girl's sticker collection.



Though there was one earlier that I didn't mention, this page more or less introduces us to the foil/glitter faction of stickers. I had a few foil stickers growing up, most of which came out of the various vending machines I happened to come across in places like Pizza Hut and Chuck E. Cheese, but I never had any glitter stickers.



Here's another page that looks like it's filled with bootleg stickers. This Goofy sticker looks like it was either made buy the same company that made the off-model Bugs Bunny sticker from before, or came with it as there are also a ton of weird smaller food-themed companion stickers. If it weren't for that tiny Mickey sticker (as well as that Yosemite Sam sticker from before) I'd probably think that the other small stickers weren't related to the larger Goofy sticker. This is really weird, though I guess not quite in the neighborhood of Ghostbusters/Panda weird, at least not yet.



Here is yet another example of foil stickers, the prismatic foil sticker to be precise…



As yet another example of what it was like growing up in my headspace, I think I would have really hated all of the raccoon stickers in the above page, as I would have had no idea "where" they were from (illustrating again how brand conscious I was as a kid.) Even though, it wouldn't have stopped me from sticking them in the book, as any sticker was a good sticker.

Here are some more Halloween puffy stickers (along with some duplicates of the googlie eyed stickers from before, not to mention the alphabet stickers I mention at the start of the colum.)





I think it's odd that the Deputy Dwag sticker set came with a stand-alone sticker of a gun. You'd never see that in today's uptight society. What's even funnier (well I guess it's funny) is how it comes off in this page, where it looks like Grover is way interested in it.  I wonder if that was intentional, and if so, should this make me worry about the child who arranged them?





The stickers that I was most excited to see in this set where these Wendy's "Where's the Beef" stickers from 1984, which I was searching for to no avail on eBay for months, and as luck would have it, both sets where featured in this collection.



I'll be honest though, I do not remember the Hot Stuffed logo or what it was for. Hot and Juicy yes, but Hot Stuffed? No.

Almost as cool as the Wendy's stickers, and yet another set that I was looking for but couldn't find where these Love Boat stickers.



I had managed to find a couple sets on eBay, but both sets were filled with odd cruise themed imagery like piñatas and streamers, and none had any stickers featuring the cast members, which are so much cooler. The only sticker I didn't get in this collection was of Isaac, but at least I got a Gopher and a Captain Stubing.

Again, almost as cool as the previous pages worth of stickers were these brand name food stickers. I was pretty ecstatic when I saw the Jello Pudding Pops sticker, as I loved these frosty treats as a kid (and it didn't hurt that Bill Cosby was shilling them either.) Quick side note, I remember one of the best things about the Pudding Pops was the crust of ice that would form on them that would come off in sheets as you ate them. These have popped up again recently, now under the Popsicle branding, but they aren't the same anymore as they're shaped like regular thin Popsicles (or fudge pops) instead of the wider, flatter variety that they used to come in. Why does this matter you ask? Because they don't have that cool-ass sheet of ice on them anymore. A little detail, but one that is apparently important enough to keep me from buying them.



It was also cool to see the older style glass Tang container. I never realized how nostalgic I'd be for food old packaging, almost as much as I feel for the toy lines and cartoons I grew up with.

Hopefully I'll be able to get to the two other collections of stickers that I have to share this week. Next week I should be back on schedule with more Cartoon Commentary! posts as well.

I can't believe there are only ten more days until Halloween (if you count today.) This month has flown by, which kind of surprises me considering the amount of posting I've been doing. I guess time flies and all that rut. Anyway, not only has this month flown by, but the year as well. In a couple more weeks I will have been doing the Peel Here column for a year, which seems kind of strange to me. I'm too lazy to check back to see if I mentioned it in the first column, but my goal was to try and do the sticker deal for at least a year, and from the looks of it, I have enough material to last almost through a second, so we'll see how that goes.

To sort of bookend last years Halloween DVD contest, I thought I'd pull out my set of the 1986 Topps Little Shop of Horrors sticker cards. These were kind of strange (like the Topps Supergirl the movie sticker cards) in that the entire set consists of stickers instead of an eleven or twenty card subset. Also like the Supergirl stickers, these are sort of mashed together with what would have probably made up the basic set of cards in that most of the stickers feature the story of the movies in the backs instead of just poster puzzle pieces. I'm not sure if Topps saw a trend in the popularity of stickers in general or if they were getting a lot of feedback on their subsets, but it’s interesting to see them sort of abandoning basic non-sports cards in favor of stickers. Heck, their Wacky Packs and Garbage Pail Kids series probably also had an impact on this shift.



The set consisted of 44 stickers, 32 of which had story backs, and 11 that had either the puzzle poster pieces or a completed poster card. Over all these are both kind of cool, and kind of silly in that the Topps gang added a bunch of subtitles and quotes which are both not lifted from the movie or funny in most cases.



There are some stickers that shine through though, in particular the one utilizing the screen shot where Frank Oz did the "from in the mouth" camera gag in the dentist office.


Then again, there are some great stickers that are really hampered by all the added text, as in the crazed Steve Martin one below…





I also didn't care for some of the artistic embellishments, like adding a little vine on Audrey's shoulder.



On the other hand I really dig the three stickers featuring drawings of Audrey II that made it into the set. I'm not sure if these were done for the set or if they were production drawings that Topps had access to, but it’s nice to see a non-screen shot sticker here and there.



Actually, I'm kind of wondering who this set of stickers was for. Granted, I saw this movie when it came out when I was nine or so, but my parents were kind of liberal on gore and violence. I mean, I don't think this movie is so bad kids shouldn't see it, but it does have a lot of adult innuendo and, well, violence, so it doesn't really feel like the sort of flick that would be aimed at kids, and therefore it's kind of weird that there was a set of bubblegum cards/stickers produced. I mean the collectible market wasn't like it is now back in '86, so were adults buying these? Now that I think about it, who was buying the Rocky Horror Picture Show trading cards that were released back in 1980? I kind of figure that these two flicks would have a very similar audience, which is what, teens and twenty somethings? Also now that I'm remembering, there was also a segment in the show Head of the Class that featured the class performing Little Shop (and it seemed more influenced on the Oz remake than the original), so if a sitcom was featuring it, maybe it was aimed at a more family audience. I don't know.





Anyway, the card backs feature a super condensed version of the story, which you can enjoy below…











Next week on Peel Here I'll wrap up the Halloween sticker festivities by break out my set of more modern horror icons featured on their own sticker cards.

In the post on the Crestwood Monster series of books I mentioned how I sort of felt like I missed out on the whole monster craze because of growing up in the 80s. One thing I really feel like I missed out on was the fun cheap schwag you could order from a million ads that appeared in comics in the 60s and 70s. In particular the alluring idea of a giant monster for only $2!



I'm pretty sure these are all posters or some variation on a 7' piece of polyethylene, but they’re all pretty cool. Above there are two variations on Frankenstein's monster (or a skeleton) posters at various prices (not to mention one being drawn by the supremely awesome Jack Davis.) There are also a couple of monster-ghost/wraiths that might have been die-cut to make them all the creepier.

I wonder how much these go for on eBay these days. I'd be willing to bet the mark up is astounding…

I've mentioned my love for a set of elementary school library books called the Crestwood House Monster Series on the site before, but I figured it would be fun to delve into one for the Halloween countdown this month. Probably referred to as those 'Orange Monster Books' (because of their deep orange back cover and spine) by kids like me who weren't astute enough to notice the publisher's name, these relatively short (at around 50 pages) hardback books were a treasure trove of monster related trivia and information for a generation of kids in the 70s and 80s.

There were at least 15 books in the series including Frankenstein, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, Dracula, The Mummy, The Blob, The Wolf Man, Godzilla, Mad Scientists, King Kong, The Phantom of the Opera, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, The Invisible Man, It Came From Outer Space, and The Deadly Mantis as you can see on the back cover of my tattered copy of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman…



I'm not positive, but I think some of the later editions had a purple back cover and spine.

Now, growing up in the 80s I wasn't inundated with monsters to the degree that the generations before me were, at least not the more classic monsters, though we did have our fare share of newer creations, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Filmation villains and horror movie slasher icons. Fangoria had supplanted Famous Monster of Filmland by that time, and merchandising for the classic monsters (like monster models and the like) had become few and far between. My only real introduction to the Universal stable of monsters was through watching a couple of the films with my parents, the one time that one of our local channels teamed with 7-Eleven to broadcast Revenge of the Creature in 3-D (you could pick up a free pair of 3-D glasses at the stores), and the Crestwood House series.

So what's in these books you ask? Well, why don't we take a look at my copy of Frankenstein and see…



I'm not sure if that’s the Glen Strange or Bela Lugosi incarnation of the monster on the cover there (I prefer Karloff.)

**UPDATE**  As has been pointed out many times in the comments thread, The above picture is of Lon Chaney Jr. under the make-up.  That is all...

On the title page we can see that the book was first written in 1977 by Ian Thorne, though I believe that Thorne is a pseudonym for Julian May an active science fiction writer who published these Crestwood books with her husband in the 70s and 80s…



The book begins with a summation of the events in the first Universal Frankenstein movie, along with some really gorgeous still photos (Forrest J. Ackerman actually provided photos for the Crestwood series) including this one of Fritz terrifying the monster with a torch.



Now honestly, most children's books on Frankenstein would probably stop there (though it would also probably have a short section about Mary Shelly and her novel), and this is where this series really shines. Not only does it include a bit on Shelly, but it also goes into the history of Frankenstein on film, going so far as to mention Edison's version of the film from 1910.  Luckily a print of Edison's 15 minute film was found, though I think it's sort of being held hostage by the guy who discovered it (here's the story), but thanks to the internet you can now watch it for free here.



There's also a close-up on Boris Karloff and some of the other Universal incarnations…



…as well as a bit on The Munsters.



Though there's a little bit of unneeded criticism on I Was a Teenage Frankenstein by Thorne/May, it still amazes me that it was brought up at all, as well as her invocation of the Hammer version of the monster as portrayed by Christopher Lee…



There's even a bit at the end about a made for TV version of the story.

Though I'm sure the content of this book isn't nearly as revolutionary as I'm making it out to be, I can't help but feel that it is. I've read a few books on horror and monsters, and it wasn't until I picked up David J. Skal's The Monster Show as an adult that I read about all the various incarnations of Shelly monster on film, and to think that it was all (mostly) in this children's book just amazes me. I guess this also points to how much I think I missed out on growing up without magazines like Famous Monsters, and not really getting all that much on TV (at least in central Florida where I lived at the time.) Here's a question for all you monster kid parents out there, are there books out there for children that are this well versed in monsters?

Here's a nicer (less damaged) version of the back cover (though it's also an earlier copy without the full set of books listed)…

So, it's the start of the third week of Halloween blogging and I'm only going a little crazy. I thought it would be fun to shoot out of the gate this week with an awesome set of sticker cards that were printed by Topps in 1980 called Weird Wheels. Their are 55 stickers in the set, which basically covers the gauntlet of the whole monster funny cars thing (the Kustom Kulture movement, Ed Roth's Rat Fink, Stanley "Mouse" Miller, as well as stuff like the Aurora model kits: Dracula's Dragster, Frankenstein's Flivver, Wolf Man's Wagon, Mummy's Chariot, Godzilla's Go Cart and King Kong's Thronester), though it skews it a little.



I'm not positive, but I believe the cards were painted by two separate artists, Norman Saunders (who mentions on his site that he did 22 of the stickers) and Gary Hallgren. Though I grew up a little late to catch onto the whole Kustom Kulture deal, I really like the art and style of this stuff. The energy in these paintings in undeniable, and of course I love the monster themes in a lot of the stickers. They're also decidedly un-PC which is kind of fun in this uptight day and age. I really like the Putrid Porsche sticker above, as well as the outright zaniness of the Voo Doo Vette (complete with voodoo car/doll) with the bloody teeth/front grill and the matching mask.



There are a lot of really fun concepts here, some more obvious than others, but all executed very well. As a collector of the 80s Garbage Pail Kids, and considering the new series that have been coming out from Topps over the last few years (as well as new Wacky Packs) it really is awesome to go back and look at the various projects that lead up to them. Nowadays Topps is more concerned with the three Ps, puke, pee, and poop, and very rarely do they let a concept slip by that would be akin to what we're seeing in this set of stickers. I'm sure if they commissioned a Drag-On sticker today, the character would be flying over and pooping on Mt. Fuji or something.



I also love that the set gets a little room to breathe with 55 different paintings so there is plenty of room to explore both the more classic Universal inspired monsters (like Frankenstein's monster, the creature, the mummy, vampires, and a werewolf) as well as monsters in general (dragons, giant insects, and blobs), interesting pop culture stuff (the punk movement and greasers), and even historical baddies (pirates, samurais, and the Huns.)











Of course, like most great Topps sticker card sets, there was a nice card-back puzzle poster, though this one is a little different as it's made up of 9 pieces instead of the more standard 10 (which also meant that I could scan it in one go, which was nice.)



Next week on Peel Here, Rick Moranis, a giant plant, and one dead dentist!

In talking about the odd cover choices publishers sometimes make with some novels (like not featuring the title character, or any character for that matter, on say the cover of Dracula), it reminded me of the various covers I've seen on Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Granted, I tend to associate the monster with the classic Universal interpretation, which I realize isn't probably the best, but I never seem to see anything as striking. I've had three copies of Frankenstein over the years, two of which featured a desolate landscape at dawn with a gnarled tree branch in the foreground, and a third which featured a graveyard.

Recently I stumbled across what I think is my favorite cover (and I realize that this probably not the best one either), which features a portrait of Boris Karloff as the monster. You can always tell the Karloff images by the sunken right cheek where the actor had some bridge work (or something) that he'd remove and suck his cheek in to give the monster's visage a little more of a corpse like appearance.



This version was published by Dell in 1975 soon after the release of Young Frankenstein (I know this because there is a blurb on the back of the book taking a jab at the film's comedic portrayal of the monster.)

This brings me back to the contest I'm currently running this holiday season. I was trying to think of a fun gift pack and I decided that since Frankenstein is my favorite monster, that it would make a might fine prize pack. So the lucky winner of the "create your own audio ghost story" contest shall receive the following:



Included are one licensed stretch monster and molded bust votive, one Wal-Mart Franky mask (with the awesomely designed tag to boot), the above mentioned copy of Mary Shelly's masterpiece, as well as a brand new copy of the 75th anniversary Legacy collection Frankenstein DVD (which has 2 discs and a ton of features including what I hear is an awesome documentary on the Universal era of monster movies.) So you can sit back and look like the monster in the mask, while you simultaneously read the book, watch the film, play with the monster, and even do it all by mood lighting from a monster candle. What more could a person ask for?

All the details on the contest can be found here, and now, thanks to Tom Foolery, you can also download a zip file of all of the sound effects (right click and save as) if you don't feel like clicking through and grabbing them.

I was re-reading over the first Galaxy High commentary and I think that I came off a little cold regarding the main characters and how I was viewing their archetypes. I think part of this comes from my mindset after watching 27 episodes of Dungeons and Dragons where all the characters are painted in very broad strokes for the most part. Venger is evil, Dungeon Master and the kids are good, and that’'s just how it was. There are episodes later in the series where the characters are put into some more dynamic situations and end up growing a little bit, but there aren't that many shades of gray in the show (except for Dungeon Master who can come off kind of suspicious at times.)

With the first episode of Galaxy High, Chris Columbus shook the conventions of the good/bad characters up a bit, for instance by painting Doyle Cleverlobe as an ass in the beginning (in particular in the credits where he not only hogs most of the scenes and song cues, but also ends up treating Aimee like crap)…



Going into the episode I was sort of hoping he'd get his yet at the same time I also immediately felt for him, as he and Aimee were exposed to the weirdness of 80s animated space. I guess at the end of the day Doyle isn't all that much different from a character like Eric on D&D. Hell, when you get right down to it, Beef Bonk and his stooges aren't all that different either. I think there's a part of me (a subconscious part) that really took it to heart when I was a kid that being evil was wrong, and therefore I shouldn't get behind evil characters. This is kind of crazy though as I feel villains tend to make the much more interesting characters. Take Cobra Commander and his crazy ranting, or the mysterious Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget, both are pretty damn entertaining. Hell most of my favorite characters from childhood fall under the umbrella of evil in one shape or another. I don't know, maybe I'm looking too hard at these cartoons and finding stuff that isn't there (well except for that giant penis man in the end sequence, he was definitely there…)

Anyway, just a thought. On to the next thrilling chapter of Galaxy High, an episode that I ended up really liking (though it's probably because of the season we're about to jump into; more on that in a bit.) Today's episode, titled Pizza's Honor, originally aired on September 20th, 1986 and was written by Larry DiTillio (of He-Man and Beast Wars fame.) DiTillio also served as story editor for the series' 13 episodes.



I'm not positive, but the title might be a reference to the film Prizzi's Honor (starring Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner) which came out the year before this episode aired, though that film's themes aren't really visited upon in this episode.

Out of all the characters on the show, I think my favorite in terms of design and concept is Booey Bubblehead, the girl with the impaired short term memory. I think part of what I like are the clean lines on her bubble head, not to mention that fact that it's made of glass which gives her color scheme more depth than the average character as there will usually be two shades of the pink used to color her (to illustrate where her collar is behind the glass neck for instance), as well as a shine. This is something that I like about cartoons that are painted with using flat colors; whenever there is any shading needed the animators typically add another layer (possibly on another cel) with a darker shade of the same color already in use, which adds a world of dimension to what amounts to a very flat painting. It's something that I've found in the style I've chosen to color my own artwork with. So with Booey this concept is always used to one extent or another simply because of her design…



Something else that I brought up in the first episode commentary is the sense of claustrophobia that the writers, storyboard artists and animators have in many of the scenes as there are at time up to ten to twenty characters on screen. So far in the establishing shots of Luigi's Pizza there has been a recycled animation scene featuring a bunch of background characters dancing to a band playing up on an elevated stage. The creators chose to animate the point of view of this scene looking up from about waist level and to give both depth and a sense of how crowded the place is they placed out of focus figures close to the camera.



I find this very interesting because it's a very cinematic move, which is rare in cartoons. Actually this is the opposite of something that tends to give me a headache when watching most animated movies, the fact that every single part of a scene is drawn in perfect focus; there's just too much information going on and my eyes strain to take it all in. So a subtle focus adjustment on one of the levels of animation actually makes the scene a little easier on the eyes, though it still puts me in a very confined space.

Another thing I'd like to revisit for a second is the odd convention of having Beef Bonk turn blue when he's angry. I got to thinking about this as well, and I completely forgot about the Hulk, whose thick angry green skin doesn't bother me in the least. In fact, back when I took a look at the TV pilot movie I mentioned that the show/film's writer/director Kenneth Johnson had wanted the character to switch from his classic green to a more logical red, which I thought was ridiculous. So why does the switch to blue bug me so much? I think it has something to do with the character's color scheme to begin with. I’m not fond of the clashing, loud red, yellow, pink, green and flesh colors he sports, and when you replace the red with blue and the green eyes with magenta, it's just as loud and clashing, so the change doesn't really grab me the way I think it's supposed to.



The basic gist of this episode involves a phantom spaceman arriving at the pizza parlor to order 100 pizzas for his master who resides on the supposedly haunted planet Tingler in a manor called Tremble Hall. Doyle, Luigi's newest delivery boy gets the job of delivering the pizza's, who unbeknownst to him is being followed by Beef Bonk and his cronies who hope to scare the living crap out of him...



When the phantom shows up in the pizza joint, there's something odd about him, something I couldn't pinpoint at first, as there's a static-y like effect that shivers through him every so often. Eventually he reveals that he's a hologram sent by his master, which normally would have been just hunky dory, but then I remembered that as he entered the pizza joint he was doing things, turning off lights, freezing the band, etc., things that a hologram shouldn't be able to do. This is another pet peeve of mine, the idea of introducing technology and then writing it incorrectly. It's funny because, if there was another explanation, even a made up technology, like solid holograms, then I wouldn't have thought twice about it, but when you go so far to invoke something in particular I think it would be best served to treat it like it actually works. We'll see this again in this episode…

So, last episode we stumbled upon a little adult themed in-joke between either the storyboard artists or the animators in the form of a giant penis man in a crowd scene. Not that I've got my eyes peeled for more penis references, but I think I found another one, though this time a little more veiled. When the phantom stranger revels that he'd like the pizzas delivered to planet Tingler, the supposed haunted planet, the crowd inside Luigi's goes nuts running in panic. In the craziness there is a character running across the screen that has a very phallic shape to his body (I say his for obvious reasons, though maybe in space there are female penis people, who knows.) In a scene just a few seconds later, the character pops up again, though this time colored more normally (he was tan and flesh colored in the first scene, and now he’s purplish-blue and green and wearing a T-shirt…)



Though in his purplish-blue hue he looks more like a lizard alien, his distinctly phallic shape is hard to ignore (or maybe I’m just seeing this.) What sort of seals the deal for me in terms of this being another veiled sexual reference is the T-Shirt depicting an arrow pointing downtown, if you know what I mean. Granted, I could so see this as being in my own head, if it weren't for the appearance of the other such 'alien' in the first episode. Here's to hoping giant penis men aren't to Galaxy High what Dragons are to Dungeons and Dragons…

I do have to say that I really like the design on Beef Bonk's ride. I'm not a huge fan of the idea that everything futuristic has to be rounded or saucer shaped, ala the Jetson's. This is something that made the design work stand out for me in flicks like Star Wars and Alien, that the ships were a nice mixture of boxy and a bit futuristically rounded (or in Alien's case, a floating city mining compound that looks much like what it would probably look like if it were just a compound on Earth.) The squared jets with the soft rounded corners on the back of Beef's cruiser are nice, along with a subtle nod of the hat to the fined card designs of the 50s. It just really works for me.


Of course it is weird that this is a vehicle that's proposed to be ready for space travel and yet there is not sort of canopy, not even a rag top hanging on the back. Yeah, yeah, I know, it's a fun cartoon that's not really taking the space setting seriously, but it still bugs me a bit. I think Futurama did a much better job of dealing with the balance between fun comedy and factual environments…

It begs the question why in the next scene Doyle is stepping aboard the Luigi delivery ship with does have a handy dandy glass canopy. Is this more of a visually pleasing design element or is it because Doyle is human and can’t survive out in space?



I’d like to point out again how weird it is that so many things in this show are anthropomorphic in design. There's a scene later when the 'face' on this ship makes a weird, almost surprised expression when it's rear-ended by Beef's ship. I get why it's done, but I still struggle with the idea if it's a good idea or not. I think the show feels like it has got one foot firmly planted in a pseudo-reality that makes these weird design aspects too foreign for me. Maybe I just need to let go of that notion and sit back and enjoy the ride more…

Like I mentioned earlier, this is basically a Halloween episode with out all of the trappings of the traditional Halloween celebrations. You know the planet is spooky because of its giant foggy cloud that surrounds it…



So, in dealing with holograms weirdly again, there is a sequence where Beef Bonk, who hopes to scare the crap out of Doyle by using a hologram gun to disguise his car as a monster. The thing that bugs me is that the hologram that Beef has Roland make takes on a corporal aspect, so much so that the car's new monster jaws can bite at Doyle's delivery truck, get stuck on the back and force both of them to crash land on the planet. Though I can see where DiTillio was going with this, it doesn't work for me because of the idea of using a hologram…



It is a fun moment though, and it does get the job done as far as having both parties stranded on the planet.

The two parties end up separated in the crash, and Doyle ends up running into the first inhabitant of Tingler, Mutie (the stereotypical New York auto mechanic.) What's kind of cool is that Mutie is a reference both visually in titularly to the Mutant creature from the flick This Island Earth (a fact that I only realized because I have a little toy of that character that I got with a set of Little Big Head monster figures a few years back.) It makes me wonder how many of the other characters are similarly referenced from other 50s and 60s B movies…



Now something else that was kind of weird to me in a 'this doesn't really jive sort of way' is the fact that when Beef and his cronies run into some of the other indigenous life forms on the planet that are scarred out of their minds…



The reason that this bugs me is that the character design on the students from Galaxy High leaves little room for scariness. I mean if some of the inhabitants of GH aren't already scary to Beef, then why would a big tree with goofy eyes be scary? Again, I realize that it's an aspect to this world that I'm supposed to take for granted, but as a viewer who is trying to get acclimated to the craziness he's seeing under normal circumstances, this seems a little silly. It ends up working a little better for me later on when the penguins show up…

Another main-ish character that's introduced in this episode is Ollie Oilslick the resident taxi driver extraordinaire. His amoeba-like design is practically burnt into my psyche and is one of the things I remember most about this show from watching it as a kid.



To reinforce that this is basically a Halloween episode, we get a lot of creepy background design which actually plays really well into the overall color scheme of the show. I really liked the jack-o-lantern rocks surrounding the very creepy grounds of Tremble Hall, which is a very Castle Duckula-esque mansion…



So I mentioned penguins a little earlier. There's a sequence when Beef, Roland and Earl split up looking for Tremble Hall and each of them comes across a different crazy monster, my favorite of which is vampire penguins. I don't know why this concept hasn't been broached a million times before as it seems perfect to me, what with the cold environments and the fact that penguins are basically already dressed for the part. Comparing them to Count Duckula, I almost sort of wish he was a penguin now…



The giant man-eating mushrooms are pretty neat as well, and it was a nice touch by DiTillio to have the two creatures fight as Beef and Roland crossed paths…

As Doyle enters Tremble Hall there are some pretty heavy Rocky Horror vibes coming from the place with the phantom spaceman in the place of Riff Raff, and the Master as Frankenfurter. I though this was a nice touch, though Rocky Horror itself is playing off of countless old horror movies itself, so it might all just be paying homage to the same material.



Though the idea of weird monster aliens doesn't work all that well for me, I did like the design work on the various creatures hanging around Tremble Hall, in particular the light brown insect looking alien with the nail stuck through its head. Honestly, when I think about it, the whole moral of this story sort of works because the monsters don't look all that different from the denizens of Galaxy High. Because of this Doyle isn't really scared of them, so maybe there was sort of a point to this after all. Yay DiTillio for bringing a deeper layer of meaning to something that actually came off as silly, and in a nutshell, this makes a great argument for the artistic validity of cartoons…



By the way, though this episode was the second aired, I think it's actually chronologically (or possible production order-wise) supposed to be after the third episode which I'll talk about next, The Beef Who Would Be King.

Of all the new Halloween product traditions popping up in the last few years (plastic electric jack-o-lanterns, two-foot high molded candy bowl statues, designer candy corn) my favorite so far has to be the yearly crop of new Jones Soda flavors, in particular the offerings in the small grenade-sized cans, though some of the larger bottle variety are cool as well. Jones has certainly made a name for themselves on the frontlines of the new flavor battle what with their insane Thanksgiving variety packs (gravy, peas, turkey, mashed potatoes, etc.), not to mention their other holiday offerings, but it's with their Halloween selections that I really get excited.

Part of this is the awesome design on the cans, all of which feature a gnarly looking jack-o-lantern face and very pun-y flavor names, but it's also the fact that for the most part the flavors are more drinkably friendly. Call me crazy, but if I'm gonna plunk down my money on soda, I'd at least like to drink it without having to resort to a 'who can drink the whole can without puking' contest. Turkey flavored soda is certainly not going to worm its way into my refreshing beverage selection list any time soon, but Spider Cider, the apple cider flavor Jones issued last year would.

I've been buying all of the new flavors for the last couple years, but for some reason I decided not to write about them last year, well except for a brief mention in my Target review. Each year there's a slightly different line-up, and for the life of me I wish I could remember what was on the shelves two years ago. I know there was a Carmel Apple, as well as the Candy Corn, but I'm not sure what rounded out the list. Last year there were four different packs of small cans (including Candy Corn, Spider Cider, Gruesome Grape, and Berried Alive)…



…and two of the larger bottle varieties (including Lemon Drop Dead and Monster Mojito.)



For some reason I passed up on both Berried Alive and Gruesome Grape, as well as missing out on the larger bottles, opting instead for the weirder flavored cans. Luckily this year they reissued the Grape can and switched the Lemon Drop Dead from the bottles to the cans. The one flavor that I did buy and ended up loving was the Spider Cider…



Though it's more of a basic flavor, it was really flavorful without being over powering, and honestly it's one of the perfect flavors for the season. I had a can left over from last year at the back of the fridge, so I decided to take it out and crack it open so I could share what it looked like. It's a bit disturbingly opaque, almost like actual apple cider. Though this is kind of weird for a soda, it certainly adds to its realism…



Here's what was offered this year…

First off, there was yet another reissue of the Candy Corn flavor in the cans.



Though I love this because of its pure Halloweeniness, I'm not a big fan of the flavor. The soda itself is a really deep yellow, so infused with food coloring that it looks like it would make an awful stain if you were to get it on fabric or the carpet or something, a very distinct possibility after you take in a mouthful and invariably end up doing a spit-take. The main thing I noticed about the candy corn flavor was that it was more of an aftertaste, as the main flavor is just crazy sugary. Give it a second and the candy corn-ness sort of comes back up like a throw-up burp and then messes with your palette for a while. This year, for obvious reasons I opted not to waste any money on a new four-pack as the experiences I had prior will last me a lifetime.

Like I mentioned above, Jones decided to send their more adult bottled soda flavor Lemon Drop Dead to the minor leagues this year. I'm glad they did because now I can get a chance to try it, and in a much cooler looking can. I'm not sure if the flavor is exactly the same as there is a little 'Sour' logo before the name proper, but I'm not sure if this is to win over the hearts of the kids who will most likely be asking for these or not.



As far as the flavor goes, it's really freaking sour, most of which hits you on the back end (sort of like the candy corn flavor of the other variety.) At first it tastes a lot like the recent Sierra Mist with extra lemon, but then it enters a whole new world of sour. Though I don't see myself pouring a 32-ounce glass of this anytime soon, I could easily see this as making a great mixer for a cocktail.



I'm not sure if this is a new flavor (I think it might have been previously released in 2005), but Strawberry S'Lime is a nice addition, bringing in more color and a much subtler flavor to the offerings this year…



Though I think it tastes more like a regular Strawberry soda, if I'm reading the can correctly, it's also supposed to have a hint of lime in it. I think I'm missing it because I more used to this flavor from places like Sonic, that use actual limejuice which is much more powerful in the flavor department. This Jones version seems pretty tame, especially in comparison to the Lemon Drop Dead flavor.  Regardless though, this actually helps to make it very pleasing to the palette...



Rounding out the canned varieties this season is the reissue of Gruesome Grape.



This is probably the most normal of the group, and therefore the most drinkable.



One of the things that makes these sodas so great is that they are formulated with real cane sugar instead of corn syrup, which is one little difference that really changes the flavor for me.

Also available this year (though I've yet to pick any up) are two new larger bottle varieties, Black Cat Licorice and Dread Licorice. I'm not a huge fan of the flavor of licorice, though I will eat it if it's put in front of me. They're also stocking the Monster Mojito again, so I might have to break down and try it this year…



Looking on the Jones website, I see that they have the previous year's line-ups, and yes, Strawberry S'Lime was avaible in 2005...

Well, here I go with my first episode of Galaxy High on Cartoon Commentary!, and I hope I don’'t blow my wad, commentary-wise, as I've mentioned that this show was harder for me to get into than Dungeons and Dragons. Who knows, I managed to take more notes than I thought I would, so it's probably just worrying for worry's sake.

This first episode was written by show creator and series consultant Chris Columbus and originally aired on September 13th, 1986 on CBS Saturday mornings. The episode, aptly titled Welcome to Galaxy High, was the only one that Columbus took full writing credit on, but I'm sure he had a hand in the tone of the rest of the series considering he stayed on as a consultant. As I've mentioned before, the show's back story on how Doyle and Aimee come to be exchange students in space is more or less told through the ultra concentrated opening theme song and credits. On Earth Doyle was popular, athletic and not very good in his studies, while Aimee (who is very short changed in the song) was apparently the opposite.



Now, even though he's portrayed as popular and sort of dumb, Doyle is far from a villainous character (I mean he is one of the points of view we’re supposed to follow into this strange space high school), but there is a tinge of ill will cast over him by a scene in the credits where he knocks Aimee down while playing Frisbee. From the moment the kids arrive at the school, almost every scene for the next twenty two minutes focuses on beating Doyle down and treating Aimee like a queen, to a point where I think the show becomes a little unbalanced.

Also, from the opening shot of the school onwards, the audience is treated to an almost uncomfortable amount of loud colors, sounds and non-stop zany antics. I mean you know you’re in for it when the school's name is in flashing pink neon above the door…



In fact, the two main colors in the show's palette are pink and yellow, not always the best combination.

In addition to the scene in the credits, there are also a couple of moments at the beginning where Doyle comes off as an ass, which sort of pit both Aimee and the audience against him, but I think this dynamic would have been a little easier to swallow had we seen some of this in a comfortable environment, like on Earth. In this fashion the show moves a little too fast (in fact, it moves a little too fast in most other fashions as well…)



Though the show doesn't really break any new ground in terms of plot (there was a very similar premise in the cartoon the Partridge Family 2200 A.D.), I was surprised buy some instances where the show didn't stoop to the level of making a million Star Trek references. The main mode of transportation throughout the school (and possibly to other locals) is by pneumatic tubes (ala Futurama) and not by transporter beams…



The first resident of Galaxy high that the kids run into is class president, Milo De Venus (whose name is a play on Venus De Milo, though instead of having no arms, he has six.)



For some reason this is when I started counting the number of fingers each character had. Apparently, all of the aliens have three fingers and a thumb, while Doyle and Aimee have the more normal four fingers and a thumb. It seems like you tend to see the three finger hand in more comedic cartoons (like the Simpson's or Looney Tunes), whereas in more serious or action/adventure cartoons characters typically have four. I suppose that the reason there would be varying amount of fingers in Galaxy High could be to show the difference in Earth and otherworldly characters, but I wonder if it was also influenced by the comedy cartoon convention (if only because the character design would sort of call for it?)

Part of the reason that I was dreading the idea of deconstructing this show is that the cartoon itself was so loud in terms of color palette, action, and character design. I realize that the show is set in the future and in space, but man was this show wacky. Part of this insane wackiness is the fact that everything moves in this show, the characters, the backgrounds, everything. This is very distracting, unsettling almost, and one of the most extreme examples of this is that practically everything at Galaxy high is alive. For instance, Doyle and Aimee are introduced by Milo to their lockers, both of which are basically robots with extreme personalities…



We'll end up seeing more, much more, of this later as well.

Another comedy convention that I noticed this show delving into is the practice of breaking the fourth wall, which was pretty big in the 80s (just watch Ferris Bueller to get enough to last you a lifetime.)



Seriously, everything is alive at Galaxy High, even the gymnasium…



At this point in the cartoon my head was reeling from things bopping all over the screen. If it was Columbus' intention to throw the viewer off balance, mission accomplished. What's funny is that this is, more or less, a common practice in cartoons, especially in the eighties. I've shown friends the Transformers movie (guys who never saw it the first time around) and they are completely lost in all the frantic action and quick plot movements. I guess I was weaned on it enough to be used to it, but I can certainly see (going back to GH) how it could be off putting.

Like I mentioned earlier, loyalty-wise, the show leans heavily towards Aimee as she's portrayed as smarter and more of the underdog (even though the second she steps foot into the school she is instantly and for no reason amazingly popular.) Reinforcing this is the number of (more or less) main cast members who are both female and 'on' Aimee's side. When I say main cast members, I'm sort of referring not only to the reoccurring characters, but also to the ones that are considered 'good', or at least the ones advancing the plot in a positive way. There are a couple of guys who would serve to balance out the cast if they weren’t basically the villains of the show.



When Doyle and Aimee are shown the gym, they meet Booey Bubblehead (literally an almost brainless girl with an apparently glass 'bubble' head), Gilda Gossip (voiced by Nancy Cartwright of the Simpson’s), and Wendy Garbo (who is possibly named after Greta Garbo.)

In these scenes we get some queues to the extent that the physical and visual comedy will go with some Looney Tunes conventions (e.g. the love inspired eyes turning into hearts gag.)



Did I mention that EVERTHING is alive at Galaxy High?



It's at about this point in the episode where Columbus really starts sticking it to Doyle, who has just watched Aimee be rewarded with a full scholarship and a brand new car (not to mention plenty of confetti dropping, when taken into context with the opening credits you have to wonder who on this production had such a hard on for confetti as a means of celebration…) Doyle, who as far as the audience is concerned, seems to be just as qualified to be at Galaxy High (I mean he is there and all) is told that not only will he not be getting any sort of scholarship, but that he also has to get a job and is only shown a little bit of the happy with the revelation that he's now the proud owner of a used intergalactic scooter. At this point Doyle even wants to go home, but is refused with the knowledge that (and I'm paraphrasing here) Galaxy High is his last chance at graduating.  Not to look too deeply into a cartoon plot, a comedy plot at that, but this isn't the story I was set up with in the credits. As far as I knew, Doyle, though a little inconsiderate and dumb, was the king of his high school, and could easily have breezed by on his athletic merits alone. So why is this all of a sudden such a dire situation for him? I think this should have been covered in the credits…



Pretty much (with one exception we’ll get to in a minute) the rest of the episode is a beat down on Mr. Doyle Cleverlobe, starting with his introduction to the school janitor, Sludge, an unassuming little pink puppy who can change into a lumbering monster at the drop of a hat (or a pat on the head)…



Sludge chases Doyle through the school, corners him, and is about to do God knows what, when Milo happens by and stops him. To complete the zany atmosphere, Milo explains who Sludge is, and then in an attempt to illustrate his capabilities, Sludge mistakenly causes a tide wave inducing plumbing snafu that whisks the three (and eventually Aimee) away into a garbage dump…



This is sort of a tone in cartoons that was kind of missing in the 80s, hearkening back to the Hanna Barbera cartoons of the 60s and 70s, and the Loony Tunes shorts as well. Sure, there were plenty of Gummi Bears, Smurfs, and Get-Along Gangs to cause silly havoc in their towns, villages and hollows, but it was never quite as zany as it was in the HB and Looney Tunes cartoons, and in turn in Galaxy High. Though I doubt he had a hand in setting up the gags in the show, John Kricfalusi did work on the project, and he is a big fan of this style of animation.

Of course weird space food equals antennae, holes, and negative colors…



So rounding out the cast of male characters you have Beef Bonk (the odd red chicken-looking guy with the Earth Stinks shirt), Rotten Roland (the weird blue egg-centric guy in the overalls), Earl Eccchhh (the anthropomorphic pile of slime), and the Creep (the flying yellow guy who almost literally attaches himself to Aimee.) All of which fall into the seriously annoying or basically villainous category, so they don't seem like main characters as much…



Just to illustrate that the show throws all conventions about physics out the window, in space humans can be turned into French fries, and then reformulated into many creatures before being reconstructed to a (temporarily silly-putty-esque) human…



As far as the geography of the show, everything is basically just floating in space, ala some sort of high school themed space station. There's at least a mall and a pizza joint connected by the afore-mentioned pneumatic tubes to the school. Also, you can really see the Jetson's as an influence in these scenes as all of the vehicles make the patented Jetson's space sputter.



Like the Ferris Bueller moment when Doyle broke the fourth wall, there's another huge 80s cinematic convention in the form of a montage as the girls take Aimee 'Style' shopping at the galleria. It's really weird to see a montage in the middle of a cartoon, but then again it was the 80s, even commercials had montages.



It's interesting to note that by the end of the style-shopping Aimee has changed in appearance enough to almost push her away from human and into alien territory. Add to this the fact that she’s getting attention and praise heaped on her at every turn, her character seems close to losing the audience as far as following her through the series. Because of this Doyle pretty much becomes the defacto main character, which is weird as he was painted the schmuck at the beginning of the episode. This is another bit that alienates the viewer…

Even in space there are amazingly silly stereotypes as in Luigi, Doyle's boss at the pizza joint (who-a talks-a like-a this-a.)



Towards the end of this episode Columbus shoves a second plot into the mix as Doyle tries to befriend Beef Bonk and his cronies, only to piss him off to the point of getting, um, blue with anger. By this point I'm getting pretty comfortable with not being comfortable with the odd visuals and stuff, but having a character turning blue with anger illustrates a pet peeve I have with design. I am not a fan of using cool or dark colors as a means of highlighting or illustrating anger as it's ironic, but not in the good way. (As an aside, I also hate it in DVD menus when there is a choice between options and the the highlighted option is dark or of a cool color and the rest of the options are like yellow or bright colors. It messes with my head.)



Also, as far as Rotten Roland is concerned, I think it's really disturbing that he has a tendency to throw 'rotten' eggs at people, eggs that look so much like they came from him that it's a little bit more than weird.

So have I mentioned that everything is alive…oh you get the picture…



It was kind of fun to see the 'puck' written and animated as a masochist. Not only is it fitting, but it's funny.

Another odd aspect to the show is the amazing amount of background characters in all of the scenes. In fact there's so many of them that the animation almost becomes claustrophobic at times, but I have to give the designers a hand in putting so much thought into the background. Of course having this much leeway can only lead to insanity mixed with a little bit of stereotypical character design, and a pinch of salacious design. Let's take these in turn. In the screen shots below you can get a feel of the mass amount of BG characters as well as the claustrophobia (in particular in the top two shots on the left.) In the shot on the bottom left you can get an idea of the insanity that comes out in crazy space crowd shots (I'm more or less referring to the flowery pig creature.) There's also the muted craziness of the little brown Droopy looking dog in the shot on the top right. Now, in the middle shot on the right, there's a very stereotypical Asian caricature that’s actually fun to watch as it's in a looped bit of animation that has him dancing. Finally, in the bottom right shot we have, well, we have a giant penis. Man, I thought I was going to be leaving the odd sexual imagery behind when I took a hiatus from writing about D&D…



Lo and behold, Giant Penis Man in the crowd. Penis man.  That is just wrong on so many levels...

Okay folks, I think that does it for this episode of Galaxy High. Hope there's still stuff left to talk about in the next episode…

It's funny how life gets in the way of website content updates. I was supposed (I say supposed, but that's so self-imposed) to have this posted last week (as well as the 13th commentary on the D&D cartoon), but it had to wait until today. Hopefully I'll have the next on up later, probably on Wednesday, and then it’s on to another show for awhile; something much, much different, say a comedy set in space for instance. Today though we're going to keep trudging along with the dragons, fantasy, and underwear jokes. Wait, I think we are blissfully devoid of underwear in this episode…

The title of today's show is The Lost Children, which originally aired on December 3rd, 1983, and was yet again written by Jeffrey Scott who took a stab at really pushing the envelope as far as some of the story elements go. I would have to call this the de facto Star Wars reference episode as we get everything from almost direct quotes, creature name dropping, similar plot points, and above all else a mixture of fantasy and science fiction.



The basic gist of this episode involves the gang, on instructions from a very oddly animated Dungeon Master (he appears very mischievous, almost evil at times), going on a quest to find a ship that can take them home. The key to finding the ship lies with a group of lost children, aliens from another world, who are also on a quest (to find their elder Alfor, who is being held prisoner by Venger.) Together they set out to free Alfor and, who they hope can use his spaceship to get everyone home.

Like I mentioned above, some of the sequences with DM at the beginning are weirdly animated, so much so that he also appears to be sort of villainous…



After the gang sets out to look for the lost children, they very quickly get their wish, though it takes them completely by surprise as the 'children' are a strange alien race that appears to be some sort of amalgamation between Willey Kit and Willey Kat from the Thundercats, and the Lost Boys from Peter Pan. At first I figured the kids were painted up in some sort of tribal war paint, but I believe that this might actually be their real skin…



So one of the interesting aspects of this episode is the mass amount of more modern technology that shows up, the first bit of which is a blowtorch used by a mystery prisoner of Venger. What struck me as kind of odd is the design of the device, which was very fantasy influenced (the tip of the torch is shaped like a dragon.) I'm wondering how much this was thought out in the script? We later learn that the mystery prisoner is Alfor, the elder of the lost children, so he's obviously from another more technologically advanced planet and could very well have brought the device with him on his spaceship. Yet since it looks so fantasy oriented in it's design, I’m wondering if it's something Venger conjured up to assist his prisoner in fixing his ship. This question pops up again later as well…



Along with all of the weird technology in this episode, we also get a look at Castle de la Venger (mark IV.) His castle was shown again in the last episode, though I didn’t mention it because it was again one of the hanging stalactite abodes from before. Why he keeps castle hopping is beyond me, unless he really does like to spread himself out among the realm, maybe to keep all the indigenous people in line.



Another thing I noticed is that either Scott, the storyboard artists, or the animators decided to do the whole "see the footsteps of the invisible Sheila as she walks" gag when she decides to sneak into the castle by herself to free Alfor. I didn't realize that they did this again in the series…



So getting back to the oddly advanced technology, Sheila stumbles upon a trap along one of the halls of Venger's castle, a hanging cage that will fall down on top of you if you step through a laser tripwire. I mean, this is straight out of Mission Impossible or something (well maybe not the cage part), and it's very out of place in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Like the blowtorch, it begs the question of where it came from. Are these enhancements that Alfor has been forced to make on the castle, or is this simply the work of Venger? Personally I'd like to believe that Venger made Alfor install this stuff as it would really enrich the story and not come off as convenient writing.



Speaking of convenient scripting, when Sheila makes her way down to the dungeon to try and free Alfor (she has no idea what he looks like) she instead finds a guy who just happens to be Venger in disguise. How in the heck did he know to hide in the dungeon like that, or that she'd even come to the particular cell? It makes for a dynamic reveal (as most of Venger's transformations do), but it really doesn't make all that much sense…



Again, like in episode #8 (Servant of Evil), I though the obligatory dragon of the episode was going to have to be something that really stretched the concept of dragons in every episode, like the tip of the torch (or the prison gate locking mechanism in SoE), but again I wasn't let down as a little while later we get a true dragon appearance. This one is pretty cool as it's possibly another reference to the Lord of the Rings series (something we get surprising very little of in D&D) in the form of the steeds of some very Ring Wraith looking fellas.



Seriously, besides their one glowing yellow eye, they are very Ring Wraith-ish and very awesome looking minions of Venger. I don't think we ever see them again in the series, which is sort of a shame as I'm insanely curious about their origins and I'd love to see a little more characteristics as they end up being dispatched in a very odd way (well actually in a very unseen way.)



Right about the time that the episode cuts for a commercial, the plot all of a sudden gets all wiggy. The Ring Wraith-like riders end up besting most of the kids, and it's left up to Presto to literally pull something out of hit hat to save them all. Well, nothing comes out of his hat and then the episode fades to black to go to a commercial. This is very common in the series thus far, usually fading to black on a villain as they trudge towards the kids, and then as it fades back in it sort of backs up a couple seconds to pick up where the episode left off. In this episode though, the timeline jumps forward about ten minutes with the gang having defeated the riders, and are now posing as them (in the rider's garb) to sort of Trojan Horse their way into Venger's castle with Bobby and the Lost Children as prisoners. It's a very Star Wars thing to do by the way, though it's also a trick as old as time itself. There is pretty much no explanation as to what went down, only an off hand comment by Presto that he couldn't believe that his hat saved everyone (or something to that effect.) Though it bugs me that there is a gaping plot hole like this, it's also sort of a fun allusion to the way such cliffhangers were handled during the serialized movie shorts of the 30s and 40s. In a lot of those serials the hero would be in a very dire position as the episode ended, and then when it picked up next week the situation was re-written to be a little more in favor of the hero so that he could escape, triumph, etc. Probably not intentional in the D&D cartoon's case, but I still found it a little neat.



Apparently, I opened my big mouth too soon as far as stating that the phase of having zombies pop up in the cartoon was over. There are just no more purple-ish zombies with white hair. In the next sequence as the gang smuggles themselves into the castle Presto mistakenly opens the wrong cell and a zombie-like creature jumps out and plays pro wrestler with him for a bit. There's also a bit of anime-esque animation to the scene, what with the odd art on Presto's teeth as he's being lifted for the beat down.



The kids find the correct cell and release Alfor, who at first bore a striking resemblance to Ookla the Mok from the Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon…



…but upon closer inspection looks more like the lost older (more hairy) brother of Lion-O from the Thundercats. Eric also drops another Star Wars reference here, referring to Alfor as a wookie.



Alfor leads the kids to his ship, which turns out to be a spaceship with a design that reminds me of a cross between the H.G. Wells time machine and the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea sub from the Kirk Douglas Disney movie. It's pretty snazzy in a 50s sci-fi sort of way, though very unrealistic as it has more holes than a block of Swiss cheese. I have to admit that I really like the whole romantic notion of space craft that have open canopies (or ones that lift up so that the crew can just jump out), it's very much in line with the 60s Hanna Barbera adventure cartoon, or comic books from the same time.



There's yet another Star Wars reference as Alfor explains to Eric that he needs to fix a bad motivator on his ship ("Hey Uncle, this one's got a bad motivator…"). I'm not a technically inclined type of guy, but I'm pretty sure that this is just some weird techno babble from Star Wars.



Apparently it's completely kosher to feature violence against the lizard men in the D&D cartoon (as far as standards and practices go) as this is the second episode to feature a direct energy bow bolt hit from Hank (there was one in the Servant of Evil episode as well.)



I wonder if this is sort of a double standard because there are obviously no real lizard men, they're more like monsters and therefore it's cool to have violence directed at them. It's sort of like the robots on Samurai Jack, or how all of the blood and guts where allowed to be every color except red in Evil Dead 2 to avoid an X rating. I noticed a similar scene in the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's Stardust, where a character had his throat slit yet the blood was blue…

One of the rumors that has followed the cancellation of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon around to this day is that it went off the air because of the supposed 'demonic' content or the evil connotations that the tabletop game has been accused of having. A scene that a lot of people point involves Alfor's ship as they gang and the kids pile in to escape from Venger's castle. There's a set of engravings on the ship which could be mistaken for three sixes, the sign of the devil, but I think that this is really reaching…



As the ship takes off, there is an odd reference to a port hole in the room (one which Venger brings to life with two sets of chomping teeth) as a garbage masher, which again seems to be a reference to Star Wars if only because a 'wookie' is flying them out on a spaceship with a bad motivator, blah, blah, blah. Add to this the escape (in the garb of the enemy) from the dungeon (read detention level) and it makes one wonder is Scott was watching Star Wars as he wrote the script…

To top all of this off, Venger ends up blasting the ship out of the sky, which appears to crash in a huge ball of flames…



When in fact the ship just sort of crashes nose first into a nearby swamp (an Empire reference perhaps) and every one is fine and dandy. Well, fine and dandy health-wise. I'm sure they're all depressed and pissed that their ticket home is lying damaged in the swamp…



All in all, I thought that this was a really odd direction to take the show in, especially in it's first season, as the writers hadn't really yet explored the full potential of the fantasy themes and environments. Nonetheless it's an interesting addition to the cannon and continuity.

Next time on Cartoon Commentary we'll look at the episode P-R-E-S-T-O Spells Disaster.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a toy line that I wasn't familiar with (when I was writing about an issue of Stickers Magazine in Peel Here #41), called Furrever Friends (stuffed animals with tails that were meant to be worn like clothes.) Well, a female reader happened across the post who knows more about these that I could ever hope to. She also had a great idea, which was to open up the floor of Branded from time to time to another point of view, a more feminine p.o.v., and since I'm always happy to fill in the gaps when I can, here is Ms. Magnolia Simms providing a little commentary on Kenner's Furrever Friends…



"Fuzzy Furrever Friends Memories"

"Hello to all of the 80s Children and Fans out there! My name is Magnolia Simms and I am definitely a child of the eighties. A huge fan of Smurfwreck, I wanted to provide a girls view. Many thanks to Shawn for letting me provide my memories and point of view.

My mind is completely spinning with so many ideas to write about first. So many lovely and interesting memories!

I think I'll start off about something that I've recently come back across and decided to regain my collection of.

Furrever Friends were made by Kenner in the later half of the 80s. They are small plush kitties with Velcro attachable tails. Unfortunately they were only made for a short time, and only six produced. The six were Bushytail (pink), Honeytail (yellow), Powdertail (white), Snowytail (blue), Posietail (purple), Rosietail (white w/pink splotches & peach tail). They each came with two tails, but you could buy attachable tails called Tail Toppers separately. Different color tails had different colored ribbons/bows w/elastic on them.





These were such neat toys. When I was a little girl I had Posietail and a couple of the tail toppers added to her. I would use her as a scarf in the wintertime. Other times I would have her tossed over one shoulder like an old fashioned movie star with a fur. I loved that she was not only a toy but a friend and a fashion accessory. There wasn't anywhere that I wouldn't wear my Furrever Friend! At times when she wasn't being worn, I would wrap her tail around her in a circle as if she was in a little bed or all curled up.

I came across what I believe to have been a mail order item called a Tail Salon. I received it from an old Kenner employee who acquired old stock. It was in a plastic clear package or bag and has a violet colored attachable tail, ribbons, bows and pillow type thing.

Kenner also made little clip on kitties called Clip n' Tail. They were a firm plastic with fuzzy tails that were about six inches or so long. They also made six different ones that I'm aware of.

There have been rumors that in the 1988 Kenner Catalog they showed six non-kitty Furrever Friends including a fox, raccoon and mink (also a carrying case.) I am trying to find a copy of that catalog or pictures from it to prove the rumor.

So right now I'm in the middle of regaining some of my childhood. I'm searching for these Furrever Friends and accessories to add to my collection and to share with a new generation.

Until next time, remember your heart can still be in the 80s even living in the present."

-Magnolia Simms

I'm not sure yet how often I'll be posting columns from guest bloggers, but this was surely fun. Thanks Magnolia, for sharing your feminine p.o.v. and your memories!

So, this weekend had some fun and excitement in store as the Secret Project that I mentioned last week was finally revealed to the world during a midnight live podcast this past Saturday. No I can finally make an announcement about a new comics anthology called Sugary Serials, an all ages book that takes a cue from the Saturday Morning Cartoons of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and I guess a little bit of the 90s…


You can listen to the announcement podcast, which was moderated by Jerzy Drozd (of Make Like a Tree Comics) and his friend HooveR, and featured some of the upcoming contributors including Mark Rudolph (of Control Voice Comics), Kitsy and Kimonostereo (of Nemu Nemu), as well as publisher and contributor Barry Gregory. I also provided a couple minutes of my promised stammering, if that's a draw.

The anthology, like I mentioned above, is an all ages comic, but before you start getting images of Dora the Explorer dancing around in your head, I'd like to remind you that all ages doesn't mean for children only, but for ALL ages. Think Watership Down, the Goonies, Ambush Bug, or the Tick. Heck, actually the best example of all ages that I can think of are the fairy tales that have been handed down orally for centuries, some of which were collected into volumes by the Brothers Grimm, or le cabinet des fees (the Fairy Cabinet) published by Charles Perrault. These fairy tales (or in essence all fairy tales) are not for kids, but for everyone, and can be just as scary, adult and disturbing as they are filled with wonders and, well, fairies.

The comics of this anthology range the gamut of action, adventure, and comedy and have a wide variety of styles and settings from Victorian steam punk to super hero, Sci-Fi to Fantasy, and beyond. Diversity is one of the most intriguing aspects to the anthology, yet it's all still all focused under the theme of being influenced by Saturday Morning cartoons. Some of the other creators involved in this anthology include: Chet Lucero, Sara Turner, Scott Neely, Robert Burke Richardson, Dario Carrasco, and Matt Putnam-Pouliot.

You can find out more about this project by hoping over to the website, where you can download or view a copy of the launch preview book, join the forum to talk about the comics or ask questions, not to mention taking a second to listen the Sugary Serials theme song composed by Gina Pensiero of Umberto and I am Janet. If you like what you see you can also pick up a print copy of the preview book from Indy Planet, as well as strolling over to the comicspace page.

I thought I'd take a second to mention a few cool things that have been coming down the pike recently, the first of which is a new podcast from Jerzy Drozd of Make Like a Tree Comics and friend Hoover, called the Saturday Supercast. The podcast is part of a super secret project that Jerzy and a host of talented artists and writers have been working on for the last year or so, that will finally be unveiled this coming Friday, August 31st, at midnight (or for those out there that see the glass in a different perspective, Saturday, September 1st, at 12:00 in the morning.) The project, the details of which I won't spoil, is very much influenced by practically everything that influences and informs Branded in the 80s, so it's quite possibly something that anyone reading here might be interested in as well.

The Saturday Supercast podcast will be recorded live via TalkShoe, which is important to mention because not only can you listen in live, but you can also call into the show or chat and ask questions or give your two cents on the announcement and the project. I'll be participating as well, offering plenty of stammering and hopefully some insightful comments (no promises), so if anyone would like to call into the show you are all officially welcomed. Like I mentioned above, it will be a little late at midnight, but hopefully this will bridge the time gap a little between any U.S. and international listener/readers. If you can't make it for the live recording, you can also access the finished show from the Supercast TalkShoe page later as well.

To take part in the podcast, you will need to download the TalkShoe software and sign up for a free account. This will enable you to listen in and chat, but if you would like to call in you will need to either use a use a VoIP (voice-over-IP) service like Skype (in which case you will either need the SkypeOut Unlimited plan; you'll need either a headset, or a microphone, speakers or headphones), Gizmo Project (which, like Skype, turns your computer into a phone; you will need a microphone and either speakers or headphones, but unlike Skype it's free to call out), or TalkShoe's own Shoe Phone (which is free for TalkShoe users in it's beta format, but you have to make sure you initialize it to enter the beta testing.) You can also call in over your normal phone, though long distance charges will apply. The phone number to call into the podcast is (724) 444-7444, and you'll be prompted to enter the show ID: 38795. I'm not sure if there's anything else, but if you need any additional TalkShoe help, you can visit their FAQ.

If you're curious about the type of comics that Jerzy does you can visit the Make Like a Tree comics site where you can read them for free, or you can now pick up a copy of his trade for the Front: Rebirth comic at Indy Planet.

I'm really looking forward to the unveiling of the new secret project as I've had a chance to see a lot of the work that's been put into it and it looks like it's going to be a whole lot of fun.

I ended up doing a bit of unintentional research on Dungeons and Dragons this weekend as I visited with a friend who is currently trying to perfect a competition chili recipe. While he was tinkering in the kitchen he let me look through some of the older (1983) D&D game books, in particular the Monster Manuel, and I started taking some notes on creatures that I remembered popping up in the cartoon series.  So sometime soon I'm going to have to put together an addendum post talking about these creatures, in particular the Griffon/Sphinx/Manticore from a few episodes ago, which has finally been identified.

This week's commentary covers episode #9 of the D&D cartoon, titled Quest of the Skeleton Warrior. It originally aired on November 12th, 1983, and was written by veteran comic book and animation writer Buzz Dixon who has worked on everything from Thundarr the Barbarian and G.I. Joe to My Little Pony and Jem. I believe he began his career at Filmation, and then ended up working with Steve Gerber (who remember, wrote episode #7 of the D&D cartoon) and Jack Kirby on Gerber's Destroyer Duck, before going on to write or story edit for a lot of the more popular cartoons of the 80s. Currently Dixon is spearheading a Christian manga comics company called Realbuzz Studios with partner Marlon Schulman. Quest is the only episode Dixon wrote for the D&D cartoon, but it's an arguable fan favorite as Buzz ended up pushing the comfort boundaries a little by introducing more magic, as well as a frightful character, Dekion, who takes the form of a skeleton warrior.



This episode, like the last one, opens not on the children, but instead on a meeting between Dekion and Venger atop a mountain overlooking what we will soon find out is the Lost Tower of the Celestial Knights. Dekion informs Venger that he's located the Circle of Power (the first of many possible Lord of the Rings references in this episode), which will (like the children's weapons) no doubt give Venger the edge he needs to finally have complete control over the realm. The mysterious skeleton warrior cannot enter the tower though, so Venger sets him on a quest to meet up with the gang, tricking them into fetching the Circle for him.





We meet up with the gang crossing a perilous chasm on a rickety rope bridge in a scene where the animation appears to be very 'off model'. In particular, Uni is drawn with huge flaring nostrils and an oddly almost forked tongue. Bobby also has a very anime influenced appearance with huge eyes and a very unrealistic oval for a mouth. The animation is also very different for Dungeon Master, who appears to actually look like Yoda, even more so than usual. In addition to being off model, the art is also very loose and almost sloppy at times.



On the flip side, as the children run into Dekion for the first time there is a very effective sequence which, when slowed down reveals the anatomy of a cartoon lightning strike in a very drastic way…



In particular I love that third cel, the one that looks like a piece of Frank Miller artwork. This is the cel that makes the whole lightning strike dramatic and amazingly effective. Man, I love being able to freeze these cartoon and look at them cel by cel, it's really one of the great advantages of DVD.

In the next sequence we have another full on attack made by Hank, who sends an energy bolt directly at Dekion, who manages to snatch it out of the air and destroy it in his fist. I'm not sure if this is a strength of the character, or a weird reinforcement of the ineffectiveness of Hank's energy bow in general. It seems like it's only destructive in certain circumstances, and most of the time end up being pretty harmless.



Another aspect of the show that I've begun to notice as I've re-watched the series is the apparent lack of swords. Only a handful of characters have them, and those that do don't really wield them (well, Warduke freezes both a tree and Dungeon Master in the 5th episode, and a few of the orcs have them in the 7th episode, though they are very quickly dispatched.) This episode is no exception as Dekion, instead of drawing his sword against the gang, removes it from its scabbard and throws it at Bobby with the apparent force of his own will. It comes off as odd when you think about it, I mean, practically, you could just pull it out and swing, but then that's where I believe the dreaded Standards and Practices department comes swooping in with notes about 'imitatable actions'. For the most part, the kids all have items that really don't fall into this category, but even the ones that do aren't showcased in a manner that would be harmful if imitated (like Bobby slamming his club on the ground; and as for Hank's energy bow, most kids would probably remove the string if they could and pretend to fire it, since that's what Hank is basically doing.)



In this same sequence, there is a slight animation error. After Dekion shoots his sword at Bobby, Sheila grabs it to face off with him, and you can clearly see that there is another sword drawn into the Dekion animation. In the next close-up shot it's gone again.



As the quintessential example of odd art (not to mention being off model) for this episode, I present you with Eric, he of the amazing rubberneck family (cousins to Stretch Armstrong)…



There's also a very distinct difference in style between the middle two cels and the fourth one, which you can really in both the level of detail, thickness of the line art, and the shape of the eyes. This entire episode flips between styles like this, so much so that I'm wondering if maybe more than one production studio did the animation. Maybe there was an issue with the original artwork and some scenes had to be quickly redone or something, I'm not sure. Either way, that's one heck of a neck, even for a cartoon. It's practically as long as his head is tall.

After Dekion tricks the kids into going into the Lost Tower for him, we get a chance to see a lot of new creatures which haven't been featured on the show before, the first of which is a quick bit involving gargoyles. I'm not sure if these were added with the knowledge of the creatures existing in the D&D game folklore, but I'm betting it's a possibility seeing as how many other more specific creatures from D&D were worked into the show.



Before I began watching this series again for the first time in 20 odd years, I pretty much had only one vivid memory from the show, which involved a sequence with Hank running up a set of stairs that were crumbling and vanishing behind him as he went, revealing nothing but the empty void of starry space. I was so excited to see that sequence in this episode as it both brought on a flood of nostalgia and reassured me that I did remember the show and hadn’t suffered from the odd effect of years gone by (where people tend to miss remember things, combining memories and such.)



Basically, the Tower functions as a sort of playground for fear, and end up acting a lot like the holodeck in Star Trek the Next Generation, where the gang is split up and seem to be in their own frightening world. Dixon wrote some of these sequences better than others (in particular Sheila's fear of abandonment; she ends up in a huge flat expanse by herself), though all of them ended up pretty interesting in a visual sense.

Presto and Eric end up together, seemingly teleported outside of the tower into a nearby forest, where in a very weird turn of events a white sheet floating by covers Eric for a second and when it's removed he all of a sudden has taken on the appearance of a donkey. This certainly seems to be a theme, at least in the first season, I assume to focus on Eric's apparent vanity (much like in the Beauty and the Bogbeast episode.)



Also, and not to beat the weird animated sexuality into the ground with this series (I do believe the last of this is in this episode), but Eric's transformation seems to also have been a, shall we say phallic one. Look at that schnoz?!? I probably wouldn't have felt that it was as phallic as it appears if it weren't for that odd indented ridge running underneath it. Hey, maybe it's just me…

Just after Eric's donkey make-over, we get a chance to see yet another set of creatures from the D&D universe, though I'm not sure whether they're Vampires or Wraiths. On the one hand, they're humanoid (as D&D wraiths are not) so they might be vampires, yet they also sort of have no legs and appear to float about like a wraith. Heck they might even be spectres, who knows. Either way they’re pretty cool.



In addition to the above creatures, we also get another odd beast that might in fact be either more zombies or possibly something new (as they walk through mirrors and stuff.) Maybe these are wraiths. Wraiths or Zombies, you be the judge!



In the last bit (I think) of odd sexuality in the D&D cartoon series we have a weird scene with Bobby and Diana looking into a funhouse mirror where the reflection shows the two characters aged in two very drastic manners (Bobby getting much younger, whereas Diana is very old; a scene that is also very much a reflection of a similar sequence in the 1983 film Something Wicked This Way Comes, though probably note a direct reference as the animation must have been in production at the same time the movie was being made.) In the mirror image of Diana we get to see what looks very much like her exposed breast, though I believe it's not really the case, just a little bit of drooping detail that could very easily be taken as a nipple. I don't know, I can see it as plain as I've seen Jesus in the wood grain of doors or the Virgin Mary in the texture of a pancake, but this is also a tendency that humans tend to have, projecting their own thoughts onto an image making them think they're seeing what they probably aren't, but again, you be the judge…



I do have to mention that Diana, in her extremely aged form, bears a striking resemblance to what I believe a combination of the two main creatures from the Dark Crystal would look like combined (the Skeksis and the Mystics), though I do realize that the two are actually halves, being split when the dark crystal shard was removed (they were known as urSkeks which look more like the gelflings than Diana above, but oh well.)

In the next scene we get our first honest to goodness Lord of the Rings reference in the D&D cartoon series in the form of a Palantir (or seeing stone), which Hank finds at the (I assume) top of the tower (along with the Circle of Power, which could be a reference to the One Ring, but it's a stretch.) It's even covered with a sheet, much like the ones that are revealed in the LOTRs books.



It's at this point that Hank realizes that the Tower is putting the kids through tests of fear (this entire sequence also reminds me a lot of the scene in the Empire Strikes Back on Dagobah when Luke enters the marsh cavern to face off with his minds eye of Darth Vader) and he begins calling out to the gang through the Palantir, letting them know not to be afraid. In the sequence with Presto and Eric there is an animation error as the two realize they don’t need to be afraid anymore. As they two come to this realization they are transported to where Hank is, and just as they begin to teleport there is a cel (which has painted teleportation effects on it) flipped so that it looks like the kids switch places for a second before ending up with Hank…



The final showdown between Dekion, Venger and the kids takes place on a flat hilltop that has a very familiar set of ruins on it (Stonehenge anyone?)



Also, as the kids are about to hand over the Circle of Power to Dekion, Dungeon Master interferes, acting out of character, yet strangely like an actual D&D Dungeon Master might as he warns them not to just hand it over. As I've mentioned before, it's always odd when DM steps in and changes things like this (or mysteriously blasts Venger from the sky for instance.)



During the ensuing battle with Venger, there is a very short bit of animation (taking advantage of the DVD format again here) in which he begins to transform Hank into a skeletal creature much like Dekion. The change is very slight (you can barely see it, even in the screen shots) but it’s a very disturbing image that I'm sure frightened younger viewers back in the 80s. This was a very common sequence in media entertainment in the early 80s, what with the end sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the bathroom sequence in Poltergeist, and the water fountain sequence in Gremlins. Hey, wait a minute, they were all either produced or directed by Steven Spielberg!?! Holy crap, so he's responsible for this onslaught of face melting in the 80s. Weird.



Again, the kids sacrifice a chance to get home for another character as they destroy the ring of…I mean the Circle of Power to free Dekion from Venger's spell. There certainly a lot of transformation sequences in this cartoon series, at least six in these first nine episodes alone. I wonder is that's a tendency in writing fantastical fiction or just a coincidence in this series?



After Venger is sucked through a tornado like portal, the now human Dekion summons his steed, a giant eagle (which could quite possibly be another LOTR reference considering there were possibly two others already in this episode.) Dekion makes a promise to return to the kids if and when he can find a way for them to get home, considering their last ticket was destroyed to ensure his return to human form.



All in all, Buzz Dixon, much like Steve Gerber, gave us a really memorable episode of D&D, one that was (or at least seemed) much more of the game's world than we'd been seeing yet. I'm not sure if it was all of the side stories, but this episode just seemed a little more dynamic than the rest. Dixon also didn’t stoop to the obligatory dragon, and neither did the storyboard artists or animators, as there is nary a flying lizard in sight.

Next time on Cartoon Commentary!, episode #10, the Garden of Zinn, in which one of the characters actually gets hurt. Crazy!

So, moving right along, we're going to take a look at episode #8 of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon today, Servant of Evil. The episode originally aired on November 5th, 1983, and was again written by the most prolific contributor to the series, Jeffrey Scott.



The first half of this episode basically serves as a Bobby solo story as he's left alone after the rest of the gang is taken prisoner during his birthday party celebration. Dungeon Master gives Bobby an amulet and send him on a quest to free his friends from the Prison of Agony, where he befriends a giant named Karrox and faces off with Venger and his lizard henchmen.

In a fun twist, this episode opens not on the gang, but instead on Venger's Prison of Agony, in particular on a very disturbing shot of some depressing wraith-like creatures hanging onto some of the prison bars, moaning for freedom. This reminded me a lot of the scene in Beetlejuice when Alec Balwin and Gena Davis stumble upon the lost souls room. For a second I was hoping that these were more zombies, which is a possibility, though these look a little more in control of their senses…



The shot then pulls out to reveal the prison itself, which is pretty darn imposing for Saturday morning cartoon. The prison is suspended above an active volcano, which houses another one of Venger's castles, up on top, on the edge.



The opening scene continues on, panning over to Venger, who is ruthlessly lording over yet another red haired slave dwarf. This time though, he urges a giant, Korrax, to be the one to throws the dwarf in the prison, as Venger is black mailing him to do his bidding. It's a very disturbing scene, in which you can really see Venger enjoying his power, one of the rare times you see him with any sort of happy expression on his face.



The show switches gears then, catching up to the gang in the woods surprising Bobby on his birthday. Once again we see Eric with a strange Earthly item, this time a mask, and again it looks like it's of Asian (Chinese in particular) origin. Where does Eric get all these wonderful things, stranded in this fantasy realm? Ah, unexplained, yet convenient writing to the rescue again.



Though the mask thing is kind of weird, it was pretty cool of Scott to bring in an element like a character's birthday. The presents the kids dug up or made were pretty interesting as well, though a little on the wacky side, which is certainly an apt description for a good bit of this episode. For instance, Eric's present to Bobby is a small box full of odd little creatures with two legs, no arms, and what appear to be large shiny olives for helmets…



It's actually very much like anime in its execution (in particular I'm thinking of the work of Hayao Miyazaki and his penchant for placing weird tiny creatures in his films.) Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if some of these Asian details I've been noticing are because of the animation outsourcing? Like maybe these things were written into the scripts, but weren't described in detail, so the animators threw in stuff that seemed normal enough to them? Hmm. See this is where my geek flag flies as well, because I'm interested in little details like this, yet I can't imagine trying to contact Jeffrey Scott to ask such minutely detailed questions about cartoon scripts he wrote 25 years ago. Heck, maybe he'd appreciate it, but another larger part of me believes he'd probably think I was obsessed, like some sort of American version of an Otaku or something. Ahhh, fandom.

Anyway, as Eric's creepy little olive hated things bound off into the forest with Bobby in tow, a bunch of new creatures, Venger's awesome lizard men, show up to attack the kids. In fact for some reason these guys remind me a lot of the Snake Men from He-Man, but I'm not sure why exactly as I can't remember what most of them looked like.



Possibly taking a cue from Steve Gerber, Scott has the gang take on the creatures in a more natural, less weapons as tools, sort of way. Hank even manages to bull's-eye two of the lizard men with a double shot from his energy bow…

I'm wondering if there is a little bit of footage cut from this segment, in particular the scene with Sheila crouching to let Hank shoot the two lizard men. While I was looking online for D&D cartoon stuff, I came across this Spanish website with season 1 episode annotations, and for this scene the webmaster posted the following: "Cuando Sheila se agacha para que Hank pueda atacar a los hombres-lagarto vuelve a enseñar su ropa interior (esta vez es rosa)…", which roughly translates (via Bablefish) to: "When Sheila crouches itself so that Hank can attack the man-lizard returns to teach his underclothes (this time is pink)…" Granted, it's a really rough translation, but it looks a lot like the site is claiming that either Hank or Sheila's underpants were showing in the scene, and they were pink. Now I'm going to take an educated guess here and go with Sheila, and not just because the undergarments in question were pink, but because other than Presto, the only underwear we get to see in the series is Sheila's from episode one, which were white, so I'm actually playing off of the "…(this time is pink)…" part. By the way, now I think I'm a crazy American Otaku, and I want to smack myself. Anyway, the rest of the notations the person made on their site, even translated horribly, seem to be spot on, so I'm wondering if there is maybe a different edit of the show in Europe (as it was released over there years ago, way before it saw a release here), or if they're working off of memories from when the show originally aired in the 80s. I did notice that it was very hard to get a screen shot of the bolts connecting with the lizard men as it lasts for only a fraction of a second, which possibly speaks to the footage getting cut back a little, perhaps to cut out some rogue pink panties. Now I'm going to go hit my head against the wall until I stop writing dissertations on cartoon characters underpants.

As I mentioned before, this episode is full of super wackiness, including Looney Tunes-esque physical/sight-gags like the following…

I have to assume this was Presto's present to Bobby, a present that apparently would have scared him right off his feet. Once again, I’m curious where this sort of gag comes from, the writer, the storyboards or the animators? Only Jeffrey Scott can answer that question and I'm not going to bother him with it, so it shall remain a mystery. Actually that's not true, I'm sure a lot of people can answer it, but they'd all be bothered or think I was crazy.

As I stated above, this episode is sort of a solo Bobby adventure (at least in spirit), so when Dungeon Master finally makes an appearance, it's to him alone (in fact he only appears to Bobby in the entire episode for once.) DM also gives Bobby a little bit of special consideration, I would assume because he's the youngest of the group, in presenting him with an amulet that will protect him from Venger. The amulet also serves as a stand in for future DM appearances as he talks to Bobby through it, much the same as Ben Kenobi talks to Luke in the first Star Wars flick after Vader slices him into an empty crumpled cloak on the Death Star.



Another interesting thing I noticed in this episode is a tendency for the main characters to get angry when faced with danger or problems. Typically characters seem to express emotions like surprise, astonishment, determination, or fear (or honestly they just keep a straight face) but there seem to be more and more times (like when Bobby was frozen and had to watch Uni have her horn removed) when characters just get downright pissed. It's odd to see heroic characters showing anger, at least it seems out of place to me, in terms of what seems appropriate (not by my standards, but by those imposed on children's programming.) I think that's why I love movies like the Goonies, where characters (and the actors playing them) seem to be freer to be honest, and when they get pissed, they get pissed. I think this is why I like the worlds Steven Spielberg helps to bring to life, because they seem so damn honest, whereas other flicks, and especially cartoons try to either sugarcoat things or force characters to react in non threatening ways that seem off.



For all of you who ever wondered what Sheila would look like with jet-black hair, there is an animation error as the gang is lead into the Prison of Agony by Karrox…



Also, at first I thought that this following gate lock on the prison was going to have to serve as the obligatory dragon for this episode, but luckily there is an appearance later on in the episode of a more or less real dragon. It's still a really nifty lock though.



Here's a shot of what Venger's castle (version 3) looks like. I really dig the idea of having it balanced on the precipice of an active volcano, it's really dramatic and seeming the perfect place to go about planning cruel deeds to play out on a bunch of hapless kids from another world…



There's another odd moment in this episode, which features Eric with a real world item that isn’t explained. This time it's a Spiderman comic book, which is actually sort of an in joke as the show was one of the Marvel Productions cartoons, and thus was probably free to reference some of the marvel properties (sort of like Man-Thing's appearance in the last episode.) Where does Eric get this stuff? I can't even attribute Presto as the source as Venger confiscated his cap before they were tossed in the prison. Just sort of weird.



There's also another bit of subtle character development in the prison segment, where we catch Hank and Diana sharing a moment. I wonder is this was improvised or specified?



This episode also introduces us to another hero of the realm (in addition to Karrox that is), Strongheart, who once again had an action figure in the D&D line of toys produced by LJN. This was another figure that I owned as a kid, though I didn't care for him all that much, probably because he wasn't as cool as the Warduke figure (and I have to admit that I think I had a soft spot for all of my villain action figures because they always looked cooler.) I'm not sure if Strongheart is a character in the table top game, but his action figure comes with different accessories than what he ends up with in the show, so I'm betting that this is another reason why the line of toys was separate from the cartoon.



There's a weird bit of background detail on a barrel in the prison that's marked "Santory 1855". I’m not sure if this is supposed to be something reflected from our world, or if this is a date marker for the realm. I did a Google search, but I couldn’t come up with anything. I was thinking in might be a type of wine or something.



There's an interesting four-armed monster that the lizard men set on the kids during an escape attempt. He sort of reminds me of Ray Harryhausen's design of the Kraken from Clash of the Titans…



Getting back to the wacky, there's a weird little bit as Bobby is crossing a small lake on a raft when he's sighted by one of Venger's lizard men. There's this really out of place spring sound effect (think like a goofy "boing" noise) when the lizard man has a glint in his eye. The thing that kills me about this is that this must have been done by the American crew, as they would likely be in charge of the sound design in the cartoon. Actually this isn't the only out of place sound effect in this sequence. When Bobby first gets on the raft there is a moment when he's running where you can hear a sort of Scooby Doo scramble (you know that noise when the characters start to run and their legs are just going at like a hundred miles an hour.)



When Bobby frees his friends and Strongheart, we find out that he has a magical weapon too, a golden hammer. Unfortunately, we never get to learn what its power is, though I'm willing to bet it's up the alley of Bobby's club. In this scene we also get to see the character's trademarked feathery helmet (well I say that, but I'm totally going off of the figure here.)



In one of the coolest segments of the episode, Venger has his lizard men take the children's weapons to use against them. It's interesting that they can use them (not to mention a while heck of a lot better) than the kids…



Okay, here's the obligatory dragon, a two-headed lava dragon summoned by Venger after the kids more or less get into an equal stand off with the lizard men…



This episode once again jumps into wacky territory, though now it's sort of super wacky as we get a very anime influenced expression of fear from Presto, and then a crazy Looney Tunes/Hanna Barbera floating eye gag. I'm really curious to know how this episode received such an insane comic twist, especially when you consider the overall theme of this particular episode is very dark and depressing.



It does revert back into a more or less serious tone when Karrox steps up to put a hurtin' on Venger. First they get into a struggle in which Venger teleports them outside of his castle, and then in a very common sequence for this series, he tosses some magic at the giant only to have it bounce directly back at him (via the amulet that Dungeon Master gav to Bobby, which he then gave to Karrox.) This causes him to fall off of a cliff into the molten lava below, though he oddly teleports at the last second averting a certain doom.



Even though he appeared to teleport away at the last second, there is yet another crazy scene as Venger turns into a giant spire of smoke, though again, it's very cool and well animated. This is one convention of the series that I am full force behind because it’s so pretty…



This sequence again illustrates the very anime influenced quality of the animation, something that shows like this and G.I. Joe (which was also animated overseas I believe) could certainly have stood for more of.

All in all this is another example of some really decent writing on the part of Scott, and one of the more interesting episodes of the series.

With today's Cartoon Commentary!, wherein I take a look at the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, episode #7, Prison Without Walls, I may start showing my weirdly anal fanboy side a bit as I try and get some facts straight on this episode's writer, Steve Gerber. See, part of the reason I started this column was to start connecting the dots, creator/producer/writer-wise for a bunch of the shows I grew up loving, but in order to do so all I have to go on is a few sources of information, namely IMDB, the DVDs themselves, Wiki, and the handful of people involved who have personal websites/blogs, or fans that have put up websites, all of which can be questioned to one degree or another on how accurate the information provided is. Lets take IMDB for instance. How many times have you done a search on say a television writer and some of the entries for a particular series list one episode written when you know for a fact that they wrote at least 12 or something.

There are similar inconsistencies with Wiki, and the reason for both is that a lot of this information is largely user supplied, and not by the actual writers/what-have-you. Personal and fan sites are great, but again, there are often inconsistencies or a lack of information. Of course there are also the credits on the cartoons themselves, but these are often not nearly in depth or specific enough, and seem to cover the entire season (if not the series) instead of crediting episode by episode (for instance, it’s common to see like 30 or so voice actors listed when there were only maybe 10 different characters or creatures in an episode.)

I'm bringing this up because I'm not positive on a few of the things Gerber is credited with. So lets start with some concrete stuff, shall we? Prison Without Walls originally aired on October 29th, 1983, was written by Steve Gerber, and is the only episode in the series where he received a writing credit. Gerber is the creator of Howard the Duck and has written a lot of stuff for TV and comics (including story editing the Transformers and G.I. Joe cartoons, as well as a run on the Man-Thing comic, which will come up in a bit.)

According to his website, he also served as chief story editor on Dungeons and Dragons, though it didn't mention if it was for a particular season or the entire series. Hank Saroyan is the only guy I know for sure who was a story editor on the series according to the DVD set, but I'm also not sure exactly how writing for or being a story editor in a cartoon series really works. One the one hand it seems like some writers go off by themselves and bang out episodes, while at other times (based on interviews and stuff) it seems like it's more of s team effort with the editor serving as a captain.



Either way, this episode certainly benefits from his years writing comics, as it's one of the few to feature past continuity (if only for a minor detail.) Gerber also continued the theme of showcasing enslaved little people, though in this episode's case, gnomes are playing the part instead of red haired dwarves.



The basic gist of this episode involves the gang questing to free a village of enslaved gnomes from Venger, who is using them to mine mystical gemstones for him. The kids quickly learn that they must track down Lukion, a spellbinder who has the power to free the gnomes from Venger's grasp, but who is also himself a prisoner of Venger. By freeing Lukion, they believe that he will also be able to point the way home.

In the opening sequence, there is a slight animation error. After the gang hears a strange noise, Presto makes a statement, but both his and Eric's mouths are moving to the voice work.

When the kids first stumble upon the gnome mining camp we get our first glimpse of the (more or less) obligatory dragon for this episode in the form of a giant stone statue.



Bobby, noticing how badly the gnomes are being treated by their orc captors, runs blindly into the camp to help them, which kicks off one of the more impressive fight sequences of the series, which also happens to be the first honest to goodness club on sword fight.



Also in this segment you can see that there must have been different animation houses working on the series as a lot of the quick moving or background stuff has a very classic anime appearance to it, which is more or less lacking from a lot of the shots in the series.

The rest of the gang follows Bobby's lead, and even though Hank doesn't connect with his shots, it still feels like he was trying to in the animation.



Even Diana gets a little more connective, as she vaults up and smashes some swords with her staff. All in all it's a really dynamic fight scene that feels very honest to the world and for once doesn't feel like it was creatively written around the interests of parents groups or any other standards and practices issues.



Heck, even Eric jumps in, protecting others with his shield, a very out of character though brave moment for him. It's not until Presto tries his hand that we sort of see the action pulled back a bit, but then again it is Presto we're talking about.



To round things out in the fight sequence, even Sheila takes down an Orc leader instead of her typical disappearing act that simple keeps her out of the way. I hate to dwell on this fight, but it really is a shining moment for the cartoon, and perhaps another benefit of having had a writer that is used to writing action in super hero comics.



In a nice establishing shot, we once again get to see Venger's castle, this one a variation on the first, though much more streamlined which leads me to believe that it's a separate castle (though obviously it could just be a side effect of a different animation house.) We also get to see that the realm (or planet) has four suns, each of a different color (which again, could be background info worked into the show, though it does play a specific role in this episode so who knows.) I like that they stuck with the hanging castle design, though I believe this is the last time we see a castle like this.



As far as Dungeon Master appearances go, this episode takes the cake with four separate scenes. There's also a weird trend set up where DM sort of appears from out of nowhere when the kids aren't paying attention (which could be a way of showing the audience that he's always there with them, as sort of a comfort buffer; it's also weirdly described in the series bible as him "popping up out of nowhere, or maybe he doesn't..."; it keeps describing him doing something one way, than countering with "...maybe he doesn't..."), and for once this is done very effectively as he begins talking to the gang and then emerges out from inside a log that Eric is sitting on. So far the writers have handled his disappearances much better than his appearances, but this one was pretty cool.



Speaking of Dungeon Master, the animators really upped his Yoda-ish influence in this episode, to a point where he even sort of waddles around like the master Jedi. Actually, his movements also sort of reminded me a little of E.T. with his hands sort of limp out in from of him and all. I wonder if this was in the animation notes, or what?



As far as new creatures go, the first thing we're introduced to in this episode are some pretty strange and vicious violet mushroom-like things with freakish red tentacles. They're actually very violent little fungi.



We're also introduced to a second more impressive creature who comes to the gang's aid; a giant lumbering plant-like monster who bears a striking resemblance to Marvel Comic's Man-Thing…



So, on the DVD there is a small trivia section that accompanies each episode (in the select a scene menu), and this one mentions that Steve Gerber created Man-Thing for Marvel, which makes this creature kind of an in joke of sorts. When looking up the character on wiki though, I found that he wasn't created by Gerber (instead he's credited as being the creation of Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and artist Gray Morrow as he appeared in Savage Tales #1 in 1971), though Gerber would begin writing for the character in Adventure into Fear #11 (through #19) and would go on to writer his 22 issue solo series after that (becoming his most prominent writer.) Here's a picture of the Marvel comics character for comparison to the creature in the episode…



There's a much more obvious bend in the anime direction of the animation in this sequence where Hank ends up mistakenly 'feeding' the creature. Specifically in the top screen shot, Eric has a very classic anime appearance.



Though the kids aren't all that sure about the monster as it seems to be just as likely to help them as to attack them, they are reassured that they're on the right track by yet another appearance of Dungeon Master.



So, as promised in the Warduke episode, here are more sweet ZOMBIES! This sequence was more like an early 80s horror film than a fantasy adventure show as the gang finds an abandoned cabin in the swamps while looking for Lukion, the savior of the gnomes. While inside the cabin, zombies begin bursting forth from every imaginable hiding place (from behind curtains, from holes in the floor, from underneath the bed even), grabbing the kids, and I imagine frightening the bejesus out of all the kids watching at home. I especially love the shot of the Bobby-stalking zombie in this last screengrab…



Just as the kids think their number is up, Man-Thi…I mean miscellaneous swamp monster comes to their aid, knocking down the cabin and presumably destroying the zombies with it. Sadly, this is the last we see of any zombies in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, but heck if they weren't awesome while they lasted. You know, now that I'm thinking about it I think the proposed third Ghostbusters movie (that's reportedly being shopped around Hollywood as an animated feature) could do with a New York zombie infestation that the GBs have to take down.

There's another pretty transformation sequence as the kids realize that the swamp monster is Lukion, trapped in a form where he can't speak or perform magic (i.e the Prison Without Walls.)



From here on out the episode sort of takes a down turn for me as the gang and Lukion race back to the slave-mining camp to free the gnomes. Lukion places the heart of the dragon (a pulsating violet crystal gem) into the giant stone dragon right as the realm's four suns align into what looks like the cross section of a giant glowing gobstopper. The suns cast a ray of magical light down upon the heart of the dragon, which in turn separates the ray into many beams with again reflect off of the gemstones in the mining camp. What we don't realize at the time is that at every beam crossing there are directions to a portal into another place or world, one of which is the way for the gang to get home.



Of course, this is just as Venger pops up, throwing an energy bolt that destroys the junction at which the portal to the kids home world is.  The battle that ensues is kind of wacky, with Presto providing most of the solutions.



Gerber also uses some of the giant golems in this episode (like in the last one), as a battle breaks out…



During the fracas one of the golems scoops up Uni, at which point Bobby urges her to teleport (a small, yet very nice bit of continuity carried over from the Valley of the Unicorns episode.) I'm wondering if Gerber read some of the previous scripts, or if this teleportation deal was written into the model of the character? It sure wasn't in the series bible, so I'm thinking it was either a notation on the character after the Valley of the Unicorns episode, or the writers had access to other writer's scripts. Either way it was pretty cool.



After the battle, and after the kids are told about the destruction of the junction that would point to their portal home, the kids seem more depressed than usual. Of course there is the last appearance by Dungeon Master to try and pep them up, but it really doesn't seem to work this time as the kids leave the camp dejected with heads hanging. I'm not positive, but I believe this episode holds the record for the number of times DM pops up (four, and not considering the episode where he's kidnapped, as that's not fair.)



Though I joked around about the Man-Thing-like creature, it was a pretty cool addition to the show, as was Gerber's script for this episode. Actually, I guess I'm glad that it was a variation on Man-Thing rather than Howard the Duck that ended up in the show. Gerber also manages to make Hank, who is the leader by default, actually act a little more like a leader, as he's giving commands and trying to solve the situations more like a commander than just the guy with the bow.

Next time on Cartoon Commentary!, we'll take a look at episode #8 of Dungeons and Dragons, Servant of Evil.

It's been awhile since I've mentioned any upcoming DVD news, so I thought I'd mention a few titles that I'm looking forward to.

First up is a movie that I thought would never see the light of day on DVD, Twilight Zone: The Movie. Even though it was shown on TV a million times and had a VHS release, it seemed like there was sort of a stigma about releasing the film on DVD because of the horrible events that happened on set during the filming of the John Landis portion of the flick (Vic Morrow and two children were killed during an accident with a helicopter stunt.) I'm not sure what's prompting Warner Home Video to release the disc this year (I figured if it was ever going to be released it would be next year to coincide with the flick's 25th anniversary), but nevertheless I'm still glad to see it coming out on DVD October 9th.



In television news, there are a couple of cartoons coming out. First up is a much better release for the Littles cartoon on DVD. There were two single disc releases from about six years ago, one of the made for TV feature film, and one basic DVD with 4 episodes (which was released at the same time a bunch of other cartoons were given the same single disc treatment like Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, C.O.P.S., Heathcliff, and the Super Mario Bros. Cartoon.)

This new set will contain all 29 episodes of the series, remasterd, with some TBA special features (though it looks like there will at least be an interview with one of the writers.) The set is supposed to come out November 13th.



Lastly, the Smurfs will finally see a Region 1 release in English on December 4th. The set will feature the first 19 episodes of the series (there were actually 21, but a lot of the episodes contained repeated segments from previous episodes, which have been removed for the DVD release; read about it here), though I'm not sure if there will be any special features (though considering Warner Brother's track record with their cartoon releases I have to believe there will be something.)

We should also see a press release pretty soon for the regular Bravestarr cartoon sets.

Well, I missed this episode last week, but who's really keeping track of a schedule right? It's kind of weird actually, how I try and box myself in to themes and schedules, which helps to keep me focused and relatively prolific, yet it takes all the spontaneity out of blogging. Anyway, on with the show…

The episode we're going to take a look at today is titled Beauty and the Bogbeast, which originally aired on October, 22nd, 1983, and was again written by Jeffrey Scott, the man who, by the way, has sort of written the book on how to write for animation (well, maybe not the book, but certainly a book, a well received book at that.) Like I mentioned last week, Scott has a nice record of long stints writing on the same show, which is sort of rare in animation, at least it appears that way.



In a fairly funny twist on the typical opening sequence (not the credits sequence mind you) where the kids are usually running for their lives, this episode opens on the gang on the offensive, stalking an invisible entity through what appears to be an area with a ton of lava. I'm not sure if this was unconscious or an attempt to sort of pick up from where the last episode left off (where Dungeon Master fought off Warduke and his minions by summoning an eruption of lava.) It was sort of jarring to see the gang working as a team, with all of their weapons/items glowing and ready as they surround the entity (which they've tracked via a series of foot prints), as they're more apt to fight with each other than to work together. Turns out that it's just Dungeon Master, but it was nice to have an episode start off differently for once.



DM's guidance in this episode is very dynamic, much like in the first episode, with interesting visual aids (rivers running skywards and such), a practice that I believe is sort of rare throughout the rest of the series.

This is also one of the first times when the group splits up at the beginning of the episode (well, Eric storms off in the last episode for his mini adventure in the swamp, but that was more of a temper tantrum than the group splitting up.) It's sort of weird now that I think about it because of the circumstances in the realm, what with the kids essentially being lost and all. It's not like they could easily meet up at a destination or something. I'm wondering, though, if maybe I'm just projecting my own fear of getting lost on this situation. I think maybe it's easier for other people to split up like this knowing that they could double back and wait at the last place they were all together (I mean is this common sense?) I don't know, but again, later in the series you don't see the gang split up all that often. The one thing I did like about the split was that it broke up the linear plot of the episode and made viewing a more interesting experience.

After Hank, Sheila and Bobby split off they run into a pretty cool metal giant…



After messing around it for a bit, the giant comes to life and attacks the kids, scooping up the brave Bobby and Uni. Right before he crushes them Hank once again ends up using his energy bow as a tool (and once again to get Bobby out of danger), in this case as a sort of flying carpet/witch's broomstick, which Bobby and Uni ride to safety. I still find this incredibly weird in terms of trying to get a handle on the 'rules' regarding the energy bow usage. Does Hank have some sort of telepathic link with the bow in which he can switch it from being harmless (in terms of the arrows being constructed of energy) to dangerous (as we'll see in a minute)? Or is there something more going on as he draws back on the 'bowstring' where he has control over what exactly will propel from the bow? I know it's just a cartoon, but it fascinates me none the less.



At least after he saves Bobby, Hank uses his energy bow as a tool in a way that makes more sense as he fires a bunch of volleys between the giant's feet, basically soldering them together so that he'll trip and fall.





Granted, the giant/golem is constructed out of metal and might not technically be a living creature, but this is the first being that the gang willfully destroys, again, something of a rarity in the series, as well as cartoon in general.

Elsewhere, the rest of the group stumbles upon a river, though it's not the one prophesied by Dungeon Master. Instead, we get to the gist of this episode as Eric, against the cryptic warning of DM, sniffs a flower, which ends up turning him into a frog-like bog-beast.

It's kind of interesting when you consider the character of Eric, who is almost the opposite of the rest of the main cast. While everyone else is more or less heroic or brave, Eric is conniving, rude, self-centered, and basically a whiner, but more importantly he's actually trying at times to do what the entire group wants to do, which is to get home. What's interesting is that when refining the show and writing the series bible, Mark Evanier was basically told to leave the character in the show, as he would be the key to inserting the moral lessons which were rampant in 80s cartoons. Evanier talks about this on his blog (it's close to the bottom of that link's entry), and he has a really interesting point, that when you boil it down this is sort of disconcerting. See, this type of character will often be the voice of decent in the group and by the end of the episode 'learns' the right way to do things, which is basically what the rest of the group wants to do. As Evanier writes, it's basically saying that you should follow the majority, which doesn't necessarily come off as all that bad in these cartoons as the seemingly 'right' decision is written to be the view of the majority, but it's still a bad way of thinking about things.

Getting back to the episode, it's at this point where we get a second visit from Dungeon Master to sort of keep the kids on the right path, as Eric's transformation is only half of what they are to encounter on this quest. It also possibly shows some of the limitations of his power as he explains that since he did not have a hand in the magic that changed Eric, he can't undo it (as well as getting a self reliance message across.)



Though it's a quick segment, there are a couple of small flying dragons that could count towards the obligatory dragons for this episode…



Of course, so could this serpent like dragon creature that Presto, Diana, and Eric meet up with in a swamp…



We're also introduced to a whole village of bog-beasts, which look pretty freakish, what with their concentric circle eyes, and stuff. I think the females throw me off the most. It’s the long hair that does it.



There's a second giant in this episode as well, Cawamung, who rules over this underground area and who is trying to drive the bogbeasts out of their homes. He seems to derive his power from his magic amulet, which I found kind of funny, as it's a yin and yang symbol. Though in the end it fits, what with how the episode plays out, it's still strange to see Chinese iconography in a fantasy setting, something that's actually pretty pervasive throughout science fiction and fantacy.



Again, we see the slaves of choice are dwarves, predominantly red haired dwarves.



For a third time in this episode we see Hank uses his bow as a tool, in this case mimicking the action of a boomerang.

Unfortunately, it's all for naught as Cawamung displays his real, hidden talisman/amulet. Seems kind of pointless to go to the trouble of animating such a weird usage of Hank's bow when in the end it was all a waste (and pretty much a pointless one, as there's no real reason that the end sequence had to flow the way it ends up anyway.)



Villains seem to freeze stuff a lot in this show, what with Kelek freezing the kids in the unicorn episode and Warduke freezing Dungeon Master in the previous episode.



I did like the gang pouring it on and basically realistically attacking Cawamung in the end. Hank actually uses his bow correctly (though he misses all his shots) and Diana does a little one on one physical combat with Cawamung's head. Maybe it's because I'm an adult now, or maybe it's just that I've seen too many violent movies, but this just seemed like it was more of how the show is supposed to feel.



To top everything else off, the Gang actually makes it home, if only briefly. Though they saw the way home through a portal in the Eye of the Beholder episode, here they who group actually makes it back to the theme park (Uni curiously included and not appearing to be effective by the regular world.) Eric, though, isn't returned to his normal self, and the rest of the gang is still in their realm wear, so it's pretty obvious that it's too good to be true.



Eric, returning to the realm because he can't bear to live as a bog-beast, leaves the rest of the gang in a very tough spot. Do they abandon their friend and stay home, or do they once again sacrifice their desire in order to do what's right?



I'm also kind of confused on the ending a bit as Eric changes back to his old self as the rest of the gang returns to the realm. I'm not sure if it's because he gives up and accepts his bog-beast status or if it's because he returned to the realm (which is what he hates the most, and what was in DM's riddle at the beginning of the episode.) If it's because he chose an option that he hated, e.g. staying in the realm, than this whole moral is sort of twisted. I think I'm sticking with his coming to grips with his vanity, as it just sounds better.



Again, as in the last episode, Dungeon Master makes a third appearance, this time to share in the happiness of the gang because Eric was changed back to normal. I think I enjoy this type of ending much better than the style where DM would pop up away from the kids and sort of gloat from afar.



This is the first episode that doesn't feature Venger at all, again, another convention broken by Scott's tenure on the show.

Next time we'll take a look at episode 7, Prison Without Walls written by the guy who created Howard the Duck.

So with episode 5 of the D&D cartoon, In Search of the Dungeon Master, we finally start getting into the show a little deeper as Dungeon Master becomes a little more active, and we're introduced to screenwriter Jeffrey Scott, who ended up penning a third of the series, with 9 episodes under his belt. Scott, the grandson of Moe Howard, actually wrote for a lot of cartoons over the years, but more importantly he wrote a lot of episodes for each cartoon he worked on, which so far from my research is pretty rare. Typically it seems like writers get credited with a few episodes on a series, or they'll have one series where they contributed a lot, but practically every show Scott's worked on has been for 8 or more episodes, and in some cases entire seasons (Super Friends, Spider-Woman, and according to IMDB the Trollkins, though it also credits Mark Evanier on that project as writer, so I'm not sure if this is trustworthy.) For most of Scott's tenure on the show he managed to push the boundaries a little past the basic conventions of the series, providing more back story, putting characters actually in harm's way, or looking outside of the realm for inspiration. Of course he also penned the questionable Teddy Bear episode (episode 17), which is probably influenced a bit too much by Star Wars and the Ewoks.



This episode begins a little different than normal as the imposing Warduke, as a means of bartering with Venger, kidnaps Dungeon Master. This leaves the gang directionless with only the odd ramblings of a fairy to hopefully lead them to DM. Along the way they end up seeing how evil some areas of the realm can be as they try and help a band of Dwarf slaves.

Actually the gang is sort of on a quest at the beginning of the episode, looking for a talking tree, which hopefully will have the wisdom to tell them the way home. This is sort of a red herring though, as this quest is abandoned pretty quickly.



At the beginning of the episode we also get a quick glimpse into the world of Dungeon Master when he isn't dolling out his Yoda-esque cryptic witticisms to the kids. Apparently he likes to spend his afternoons on leisurely snail rides while having some good conversation time with high pitch voiced fairies. We also get a chance to see him facing off with a bunch of bumbling toad creatures before Warduke shows up to abduct him.



I was surprised to see Warduke in this episode, as I have a bunch of fond memories of the character from childhood. Though I haven't played the tabletop game (I'm not even sure if Warduke is a character in it), I did have the toy which I loved to death because he was so gnarly and evil looking. I'm not sure exactly how I came about getting him as a kid, but there was something awesome about his beady read eyes sunken deep with his winged helmet that I used to love. He also reminded me a lot of the weird villain goons from the two Mad Max sequels.





Where the toad men bumbled ad failed at getting a handle on Dungeon Master, Warduke simply sweeps in, chucks his huge sword into a tree where DM is escaping, and freezes him in his tracks. Apparently Warduke's sword acts as a sort of freeze ray (maybe it's the evil icy cold touch of death or something.)





Like E.T., we can clearly see that DM is still alright as the gemstone on his tunic is still glowing red.

The slightly annoying fairy from the beginning of the episode (who is voiced by Frank Welker doing a precursor to his voice-work for Slimer from the Real Ghostbusters) runs to get the gangs help in aiding DM. By the time they get to the area where DM was abducted, all that's left are the crazy toad men. There's also a couple of animation errors right after the fairy comes to fetch the gang, one where Diana's hair is discolored red (actually more of an orange, Sheila's hair color) for a second (though I forget to get a screen grab), and a seond one where Bobby and Presto's voices are switched.

In the 'fight' that ensues, there is some more crazy bow work from Hank where he manages to use his energy bolts as fireworks to make the toad men flee. It's kind of funny, I have to keep asking myself why I am so anxious to see the kids use their weapons in a violent manner instead of being so weirdly creative with them. It's not like I'm a really violent person, or that I want to see the kids actually harm someone, but there's something I find disconcerting about having weapons like a bow or a club introduced and they are almost never used the way they are intended. I guess it's a lot like watching the Star Wars flicks, except instead of seeing Luke cutting off phantom Vader heads he'd be constantly making his light saber into a sort of light lasso or light whip. What if Obi Wan, instead of cutting off Walrus Man's arm, switched on his light saber, sliced into the floor in front of Walrus man and a series of fireworks popped up that made 'ol Wally run like the dickens? It'd be weird wouldn't it?



At Least Diana seems to be using her staff correctly in the scene, at least in terms of how one would use a bo in a fight.



There's another instance in this episode where Eric reaches under his clothing to produce a real world item, in this case a wad of $100 bills. Again, I realize that this is used as a sort of one off gag, but it's really distracting from an otherwise sort of serious show.



There's a nice quick scene involving Warduke sending Shadow Demon off to fetch Venger so that he can barter Dungeon Master away. It's kind of cool to know that there are independent forces of evil at work in the realm as Venger has been the main villain, or the boss of the main villain in every episode so far.



This episode also features some mysteriously helpful winged lions (now I know these have a name and I was thinking of either manticores, sphinxes, or griffins, though none of these really fit the bill.)



Much like the scene in the first episode where Sheila is jumping on a horse and you get a weird panty shot, we also get a confirmation on what type of underwear Presto prefers. For the record he's a striped boxer sort of guy…



There are a couple of other paint errors in this episode as well, one small one (that wasn't worth getting a screen grab of) on the cliffs where Sheila and Eric's eyebrows aren't filled in, and a second where Eric's glove mysteriously disappears for a second.



Jeffrey Scott sure as heck wasn't holding back on the amount of new monsters and creatures in this episode. In addition to the Toad Men, the Warduke, the giant snail, a fairy and the winged lions, we are also introduced to this huge rock creature (with cool gem eyes I might add.) Also, it's kind of hard to see but those white blades on his hands aren't his fingers (though they sure look like 'em), they're more like Wolverine claws extending from it's knuckles.



With the introduction of a creature character like this, I guess Scott felt more comfortable having the kids fighting it directly, as for only the second time in the series Hank fires a few volleys of energy arrows directly at the rock creature. I'm wondering if the less humanoid the creature, or the more obviously it isn't made of flesh and blood, the easier it is to do direct damage to it, sort of how Genndy Tartakovsky found himself replacing human villains with robots in Samurai Jack to appease the censors and parents groups, or how all of the gallons of blood in Evil Dead 2 were a variety of colors, except for red of course, so that they could avoid an X-rating.



If all of the creatures above weren't already enough, than we also have a more starring role for the Orcs, which were introduced in episode three. Apparently they are the go to henchmen as they work for both Warduke, and later Venger.  The thing that struck me the most about the Ocs was their likeness to the Gamorean Guards in Return of the Jedi, what with their build, their horns (even if they're on the helmets), and their piggish snouts.  Star Wars has a great deal of influence over this series as it was at the height of it's popularity in the 80s, not to mention merchandised to the gills and back.  Hooking kids in with similarities is a no brainer and more or less to be expected of cartoons of the time.



Scott wasn't done though; he is apparently a lover of all things creature, as we also get a quick snippet of some sort of tentacled swamp creature…



…as well as the most awesome thing ever for a Saturday morning cartoon, ZOMBIES! The Zombies will feature more prominently in episode seven, but it was so cool to see a lone creature of the undead wandering around the swamps of the realm.



Scott also introduces another long running convention of the series in this episode, which is featuring an establishing shot of Venger's castle. Almost every time it's shown from here on out it looks completely different and I'm not sure if it's because it wasn't described on a model sheet, so it was left up to the animators, or if the producers and writers were trying to get across the idea that Venger held residence all over the realm in many different abodes. Of course, a lot of the forthcoming castles are also destroyed, so that's another reason right there.



I really liked the design on this castle, sort of like a huge stalactite. You don't seem to find to many castles that are built to hang, almost more like a hive or a mud dobber (what is the correct name for a wasp's nest?)

Red haired dwarves are common slaves in the realm, as we'll see in further episodes. In fact if it isn't dwarves, it's halflings. Short folk get the crap end of the stick in the Dungeons and Dragons universe.



What's that? You say that Scott didn't throw in enough new creatures in this episode? Well then here's a giant swamp turtle to tide you over.  Actually for all of the creatures showcased in this episode, I'm surprised that it also doubles as the first episode not to feature any sort of dragon.



In yet another scene where the gang uses their weapons like tools, it appears that Hank's energy bolts can also be fashioned into a lasso. I suppose this means that he has some sort of psionic control over the bolts, as he seems to make them into whatever he pleases, not to mention as harmless as he pleases, as Bobby has ridden them before. Hank does have a cool moment a bit later when he shoot Warduke's sword out of his grasp.



As the kids free Dungeon Master we get to really see him in action as he has a short fight with Venger in which he totally owns him, and yes, once again Venger is dissipated, though unfortunately not into some sort of cool towering visage. Makes you wonder Dungeon Master doesn't just kill the guy off you know?

Anyway, this is the first instance where Dungeon Master and Venger are on screen together (well except for the opening credits, but does that really count?)  If Scott can be credited with anything as far as the series goes, it's breaking out of the confines of the normal story structure that was set up in both the series bible and in the first four episodes.



Right after he's done with that and the kids free the dwarf slaves, DM makes quick work of Warduke and his cronies as he causes the mines where Warduke made his hideout to fill with lava (I guess it was a dormant volcano or something.) It was kind of cool to see DM really letting loose with the destruction, though on another hand it's also inferred that he let himself get caught (for the benefit of the kids coming to rescue him I guess), so that takes away from it a little. Either way it was a pretty dynamic episode, and one that would set the tone for the rest of the series.



Tomorrow, we'll take a look at episode six, Beauty and the Bogbeast.

Well, I broke down and opened my new Storm Shadow 25th Anniversary G.I. Joe figure. I just needed to let him out to get some air and, well, play with him. Keeping figures in the package is just not in my blood or something. The rest of the figures are up on the wall next to my computer for inspiration, but Storm Shadow is standing atop my tower keeping an army of cute little chub Transformers at bay. Since I tore off the plastic bubble, I thought I'd take a minute to scan in the card to show a little more detail on the packaging for these new figures and how faithful they are to the original G.I. Joe packs.

I'd mentioned in a previous post about the upcoming figure portion on the back, with boxes that are grayed out and reduced to silhouettes. Here you can see what's coming up based on the character's outline, 8 of which I was surprised how easily I could recall who they were. On the top row, from left to right, you have Beach Head, Lady Jaye, Buzzer, Sepentor, and a basic Cobra Trooper (but will he have a black or red mask covering his mouth?) The next row was a little trickier, for one because the silhouettes were a lot fainter, but also because a couple threw me a little. From left to right we have Firefly, Red Ninja, Stalker, Shipwreck, and Zartan.

I had a little trouble with Stalker as I never had him as a kid and I wasn't familiar with his packaging art, and as I mentioned before I was totally clueless to who the Red Ninja was as I didn't remember anyone besides Storm Shadow with package art depicting a bow. At first, based on photos taken at the San Diego Comic Con, my friend Daniel and I figured that it was probably another version of Storm Shadow, in his get up from the Valor Vs. Venom cartoon, but in the comments on my last post I was corrected by a few people that it was going to be a Red Ninja (btw, thanks for the picture link Hoov.) As you can see in this I-Mockery article, as well as on YoJoe.com, that there was indeed a Red Ninja called Satan back in the 80s, though it was most certainly only released outside of the US (in Argentina I believe), but regardless, there's the art that matches the silhouette.

Finally, here's a close-up of the artwork from the front of the packaging. Just can't say enough great things about this.

I still haven't found any 5-packs on store shelves, but I'm sure they'll pop up sooner or later.

So jumping back into Dungeons and Dragons today, we'll take a look at the second episode which first aired on September 24th, 1983 and was titled The Eye of the Beholder.

This episode was co-written by Mark Evanier (who was providing his last bit of input into the series as he did not stay on after the initial launch of the show), with help from Hank Saroyan, who also served as the Story Editor and the Voice Director on the cartoon, and Kimmer Ringwald, who is probably most known for his producorial (yeah I know that's not a word, but I like it anyway) work on the Baywatch series. This is also the only episode credited to either Saroyan or Ringwald, though I'm sure Saroyan had plenty of input on further episodes since he was a Story Editor.

In this episode, the gang meets a wandering knight, Sir John, who boasts of great deeds though in reality he's a coward grasping for his last chance at being an honorable knight. The kids are sent by Dungeon Master to find a creature called the Beholder, who when defeated will provide a portal back to their home-world, so they enlist the help of Sir John, who has some dubious ulterior motives of his own.

This episode sets the tone for the majority of the series by opening with a bang as the kids are immediately fleeing for their lives as a giant multicolored scorpion chases after them (after being woken by a annoyingly curious Uni.) As in a lot of the future episodes openings, the gang chooses to flee instead of holding their ground to fight, which makes me wonder if this is rooted in story structure or pressure from parents groups. It smacks of the Scooby Doo syndrome, just will less bubblegum pop music and much larger creatures.

Very soon we're also introduced to the obligatory dragon for this episode, an imposing bipedal blue dragon that seems to be more interested in the scorpion than the kids.

In the scuffle we're also introduced to Sir John who is obviously a coward as he curls up into a ball, butt in the air, hiding like an ostrich from the two creatures. If you watch closely there is a quick paint error in the animation as John stands up and brushes himself off, his glove/gauntlets seem to disappear as they become flesh colored for a second.

There's another error, this time in the photographing of a series of cels as the gang is walking through a field of mushrooms. The bottom right of the screen shows that the cels were shifted enough so that Diana's legs disappear and you can see the edge of the frame.

This episode is jam packed with various creatures and background characters. Besides the giant attacking dragon and scorpion in the beginning, there are also a group of slug/snail creatures, the eventual Beholder (which is taken from actual D&D mythology), and an entire town of people that Sir John is supposed to be defending.

Once again, when confronted with the slug/snail creatures the gang chooses not to fight, though they attempt to parry and block against the monsters' assaults. It's almost a theme for this episode as at every turn, when faced with danger, the group is written almost as victims for Sir John to try and save. Unfortunately, because he's a coward, or trips into saving the gang, it sort of comes off as weird and unbalanced, especially later in the series as the group whole heartedly takes on the like of Venger or Tiamat without batting an eyelid. I think part of this is due to the series being new, and as I've mentioned before, I have a hunch that there was possibly pressure to limit the aggression and violence of the main characters.

This non-attacking theme is carried on through the battle with the Beholder as the gang blocks, parries or ducks for cover. By this point I was really getting tired of all this running and hiding, and it really began to feel like the characters were acting more like pawns of the writers than characters. On a separate note, the Beholder in this episode is kind of interesting in that it's quite different from how they're portrayed I the D&D role-playing game, at least according to wiki. I've never been fond of this sort of flying blob with eyes type of creature, but they must have been popular as they pop up in other places like the Doom computer games, as well as in Big Trouble in Little China (and to an extent Slimer from Ghostbusters.)

Though I didn't really care for this episode all that much, I really liked the scene between Sir John and Venger (who is holding John's son hostage to get him to lead the kids to the Beholder.) After John dumps the gang off to their doom he meets back up with Venger who is evidently an evil villain who keeps his word as he returns John's son to him with no strings attached. It was rather refreshing to see a scene play out like this since this situation typically turns out sour for the person who 'sells their soul' as the villain typically doesn't keep their end of the bargin. I think this is one of the reasons why I really dig Venger as a villain, and later on it's moments like this that really show how well developed of a character he is.

This episode also marks the first time when the gang actually manages to open a window home to their own world, though it also sets up the pattern of having them make the hard choice to stay and help someone in the D&D realm, sacrificing their chance to get back. There are actually two reasons why the gang decides to stay in this scene, the first being Uni. Bobby, who is basically Uni's guardian, doesn't want to leave him behind even though I believe it's sort of accepted that Uni wouldn't be able to survive in their world. This is sort of a weird situation because at the end of the day it isn't going to change as long as they keep the annoying little unicorn around as a mascot/pet. The second reason the kids decide to stay is to help Sir John, who in the end came back to rescue them, and is now being attacked by Venger.

Once again we see the kids, on the offense and to the rescue even, not really fighting Venger. In fact the only time he is even fazed is when a bolt he shot at Eric is reflected back upon him. To top it all off, he's dispatched by a mysterious red bolt of energy that more or less remains unexplained, though we get the idea in the end that it came from Dungeon Master, who is laughing himself silly where the group can't see him. This just raises the question again about how involved is DM, and what is he capable of doing interference-wise.

Since the show is based on a table top role-playing game I'd have to say that Dungeon Master should really only be the type of character that describes settings and gives hints, like the real world counter part he's acting as, though it is common for the Dungeon Master/Game Master/Story Teller to play a character in their own campaigns, which has always sort of bugged me as a player. As we'll see in the next few episodes this dichotomy is addressed further, though later on, in the 2nd and 3rd seasons DM takes on a more classic guide-like position, stepping back from the group a little. Again, I think this is more of a stumbling at the beginning of the series as the editors and writers are feeling their way around the world they're creating.

Tomorrow, the Hall of Bones.

I forgot to mention while talking up my visit to Bizarro Wuxtry this past weekend, that of all the stuff Devlin had in his store the thing that amazed me the most was that he had a handful of 80s stickers for sale. While I've been looking for a place that sells 80s era ephemera, magazines and the like, I've really wanted to find at least 1 set of stickers, or at least some original Garbage Pail Kids or something, and he had both. Not a large selection, but it was certainly heartwarming to find anyway.

Well, this week on Peel Here I'm finally going to share my collection of Michael Jackson stickers, which as I've said, is a much larger one than I ever thought I'd end up with. Mr. Moonwalker made up a pretty big portion of my musical influences around the age of 7, and even though I was never sucked in to the creepy extent that Macaulay Culkin or Corey Feldman were, I did have my a few bits of Michael Jackson schwag. The two things I remember the most were a cheap record store knock-off white, sequined glove and a horrible white, cut-off sweatshirt that looked like it was torn away to reveal a couple hairy fingers, some yellow cat eyes, and had the word Thriller above it in a gaudy green and yellow airbrushing.

The Thriller album was one of my first cassettes (along with a hand-me-down copy of the first Weird Al record, a Beach Boys best-of, and a Best of the Monkees tape) and I think I must have listened to the title track at least a million times (and each and every time I'd totally get freaked out by the Vincent Price narration.) I was also turned onto zombies through his crazy video collaboration with John Landis. The one thing I never did have that I coveted to a crazy degree was one of those sweet red leather jackets that he made popular in that video, but I guess in a way I'm also glad as I have enough 80s articles of clothing to already be some what ashamed of wearing (for instance that cut-off sweatshirt mentioned above.)

Seeing as how he was probably the biggest star of the decade, it doesn't come as much of a shock that he was merchandised to hell and back, from a line of Michael Jackson dolls to school supplies, posters, and well stickers. Here's a few that I've picked up on the cheap recently…

Now I have seen some more officially licensed puffy stickers, but these are pretty much the exact same stickers only in a very bootlegged looking package. These stickers are actually a nice representation of the transition that the King of Pop was going through during the late 70s and early 80s, starting with 20 something afro Jackson, going through early 80s clean cut Jackson, and on to the 1984 Thriller era wet-hair Jackson. I also really dig that since the afro picture was so cool, it had to be repeated.

Now for something a little crazier and a little more official, here is the complete first series of the 1984 Topps Michael Jackson sticker cards.

There were 33 cards in this set, which could be purchased in either packs, or in a carded set. The stickers themselves have two variations, one with the Topps copyright and one with just the MJP text, but both are the same. I don't think I've shared any stickers that quite scream "designed in the 80s" like these sticker cards do, from their wacky shaped die-cuts, to the miscellaneous symbols in the background. The second card series is even worse as the BG is mint green, a much more 80s fad in terms of color.

If the puffy stickers exhibited a nice transition of his style in terms of going from sort of normal looking to his more patented freaky appearance, these sticker cards are ten times better. They manage to capture almost every aspect of his style, from the glitter jumpsuits to his freakish Llama fetish and his white glove to his mastery of wearing bow ties with a sweater.

There was even a shot with his monkey, Bubbles. I wonder how many personally owned moneys have been stuck with that moniker since?

By far though, and the reason I bought this set in the first place was for the inexplicably awesome Sad Clown Jackson sticker. Is there a better image of Michael Jackson? When the hell did this come up in his day-to-day entertainment life, I mean what urged him to rock the sad clown? I think I missed that day of MTV or something. To round things out for this set we also get a shot of Jackson as the Scarecrow from the Wiz.

It wouldn't be a complete Topps sticker card set without a couple of sets puzzle poster card backs, so here you go…






Last but not least, we have a couple of packages of Lazer Blazers extra large hologram stickers. I think I dig these the most because of all of the stickers featured, these seem like the type of merchandising that he'd of been really excited about. I mean as part of the whole hologram technology you get a 3-D like effect that we know he was super fond of, considering his Epcot flick Captain Eo and all (which I very much regret missing out on even though I lived just 30 minutes from Epcot growing up.)




It's kind of sad really, I thought that I would have a lot more to say, at least more funny things, but ultimately, I guess pretty much all of my love for the Smooth Criminal ended when I turned 10 and my musical interest shifted from easy listening Pop to Metallica and speed metal. Considering his downward spiral of self parody, and somewhere down the line, his buying into the whole god-like stature I've just never been able to get back into him, not even really in a kitsch kind of way. I do remember being impressed by his self-parody on an early season of the Simpsons, though only a little. Oh where or where is my 7 year-old self when I need him? 

Next week on peel here, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors fight the evil Saw Boss and the Monster Minds!

So I was going to share my collection of 80s era Michael Jackson stickers today, and I was planning on writing the entire review while simultaneously doing a continuous cross-over-shake-kick, grabbing my crotch with one hand, pointing to the sky with the other, and screaming "Jamone!" at the top of my lungs (I'd be typing with my very un-plastic surgery altered nose), but I have a very special pre-emptive edition of Peel Here to present. Esteban (Crazysteve to some I believe), who's got a very funny blog, Please Save Me Robots (as well as being the owner and proprietor of the Vintage Space Toaster Palace and Wrecked Special), decided to dig out and share a bunch of the stickers in his Transformers collection as well as shedding some light on what other TF stickers were available in the 80s. It's crazily even on my birthday, and no that isn't a cry out for well wishes or presents from strangers, just a fun coincidence.

As I mentioned in the last Peel Here column I had a pretty hard time tracking down Transformers stickers when I started this crazy 80s sticker collection, only really finding one package of Lazer Blazers, one unused Transformers Aladdin lunchbox sticker, and one of the four packages of Lenticular stickers which were intended to be used with the 1985 Transformers Stick-N-Play activity book. From time to time I'd notice an auction pop up for some small loose individual G1 stickers, but they were pretty expensive (at least for my tight wad self, I am trying to get a broad example of branding after all) and never really clear as to whether they were complete sets or not. Add to this that they were supposed to be packaged with a set of trading cards called Action Cards, which in eBay auctions looked mighty bootlegged, so I stayed away from them. Luckily Esteban collected these when they originally came out, so I'll let him fill you in on these in his own words…

"Action Cards were somewhat hard for me to find and I only found the packs in one little mom and pop store in Los Angeles. I grew up in Texas and I used to visit L.A. when I was a kid back in the summer of '85 and '86. That store had the packs for $1 each and they came with eight cards."

"As a little bonus each pack had a small sticker that featured the box art of one Transformer character alongside their tech spec 'motto'. From what I've been able to gather on the internet and from other collectors is that there were 13 Autobot stickers…"

"…and 11 Decepticons. I never knew about the eleventh Decepticon, Skywarp, until three years ago when I started doing research online. As the rarest sticker in the set he is extremely hard to find."

Now that I've gotten a chance to take a closer look at these I really love 'em. I'm a total sucker for the box art paintings that were done for toy lines like Transformers, G.I. Joe and M.A.S.K. On the one hand there is something very alluring about the crazy dynamic poses, and in the case of G.I. Joe the crazy fireballs that all the characters and vehicles were exploding out of, but more so I think even as a kid that there was something special about them because they were painted and not just pictures. It really made it seem like these companies were putting a ton of time and effort into every aspect of the toys, which when you considered the cartoons as well offered an awesome richness to the collecting aspect. The Transformers box art is a little different too in that it’s based on the toy design and not the cartoon counterpart.

So having 24 or so stickers with nice individual examples of this is pretty cool, though I'm glad they ditched Ironhide and Ratchet because those toys were just weird. Also, and even though I'm not typically a fan of it in toys (hindering creativity and all), I like that they included the character's tech spec quote/flavor text. I can imagine kids growing up with both these and the packaging, and if they were like me they sat and digested stuff like this for hours, and then being able to remember personalities if not the exact character quotes 20 odd years later. Hell, the "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" Prime quote is referenced in the new movie even. I mean I'm sure there is a good 50/50 split between kids who grew up with the characters being who they were designed and written to be and kids who ignored that stuff and made their personalities up themselves. I leaned towards making up the personalities, but I wonder how much of this was because my parents typically opened my toys before they gave them to me so I never got a chance to see this type of thing. Maybe that's why I would pour over the packaging, not to mention the oft times included catalog, as if it were the most interesting reading ever.

As far as the characters that were chosen for each set, I'm surprised to not see Bumblebee in with the Autobots, or any of his other smaller kin. Which, now that I'm on the subject kind of, is another interesting facet to the whole Transformers collecting phenomenon as to which side you fell on as a kid, more of the larger toys, or more of the cheaper smaller toys. I was kind of in the middle having some of the larger figures, though most of my collection was comprised of the mini figures and Soundwave's tapes. Most of the guys I know now had mostly the smaller toys, and were always happy to see them represented in merchandising, an area that besides Bumblebee seemed mostly set aside for the larger figures.

On the Decepticon side of things it's almost the opposite situation with an almost even match between large and small, if only because practically all of Soundwave's 'original' tape henchmen are included. The other thing that's kind of weird is the inclusion of only one Constructicon, Long Haul. They seem like they should either be presented together individually or together as Devastator. I guess that's just my anal retentive side shinning through though. Also, to show you how unknowledgeable I am in the Transformers mythos, I always thought Rumble was the blue tape. Oh well.

The second, and much rarer, part of Esteban's sticker collection hits a little closer to home in terms of the type, lenticular, which seems like a design that was created especially for Transformers, though obviously it wasn't.

"The second set is crazy rare and most Transformers fans are unaware of its existence, which is odd because it was part of one of the most popular Transformers promotions ever. Back when Cookie Crisp did their mail-away Jazz promotion, each cereal box also included a little square lenticular Transformer sticker. The exact number of stickers in this set is unknown to this day. I know because I've asked many of my friends who are way more into Transformers than me and I've even been able to contact some hardcore mega collectors who could be considered true experts in the field and nobody is sure how many stickers there were in this set."

"So far I've been able to confirm the existence of 14 in this set (Astrotrain, Beachcomber, Blitzwing, Galvatron, Megatron, Mixmaster, Omega Supreme, Perceptor, Skywarp, Slag, Snarl, Soundwave, Swoop, Ultra Magnus.) There are probably many more since I haven't confirmed the existence of some characters who would only make sense like Optimus and Jazz (I figure Jazz should exist because the whole Cookie Crisp promotion was Jazz oriented in the first place, but it's just speculation on my part.)"

Esteban also provided a link to his friend's Transformers collections site (which is pretty darn full and nifty) called the Transformers Museum.

"This is by no means a complete list but it reflects everything I've been able to find out about this set so far. I've also talked to one person I consider a sticker authority and they put the number in the set at 22, further broken down into 6 released in the US with a copyright stamping of 1985, 8 released in Canada with a copyright stamping of 1985, and 8 released in Canada with a copyright stamping of 1986. I haven't been able to confirm the accuracy of this estimate…[and] my research isn't complete enough to know for sure whether certain characters were Canadian exclusive or if the US got them too, without the Canadian copyright."

Cereal premiums, in particular stickers, seem like they would be pretty frickin' rare to me considering that most kids burn through stickers as it is, but since they aren't typically part of a larger collection, or even if they are you parents probably didn't buy enough (or you couldn't eat enough) to get them all anyway, they probably weren't saved. Here are links to the individual Cookie Crisp stickers in Lewis' collection: Astrotrain, Beachcomber, Galvatron, Megatron, Mixmaster, Swoop, and Ultra Magnus.

Last up today are some more of the style of lenticular (or switchable as the packaging refers to them) stickers that I shared way back on Peel Here #2, the stickers that were meant to be used with the Transformers Stick-N-Play story and activity book. Esteban sent in scans of the two other individual packages of stickers, the Attack and Figher packs to go along with the Battle pack that I shared before.

I really love that Brawn sticker for some reason.  The book itself came with the first pack of stickers, which included Optimus Prime, Windcharger, Sunstreaker, Starscream, Skywrap and Soundwave. These stickers, like a lot of puffy stickers that had official albums/books, were meant to be applied and re-applied, treated as toys in a way. The only time I ever used puffy stickers in this manner was when I was being punished by being kept alone in a room and the only thing I had to entertain myself was a package of G.I. Joe puffy stickers that I snuck in with me. I played with the stickers like toys, but then immediately regretted it when they had a bunch of stray hairs and carpet fibers stuck to the back of them.

Anyway, a heartfelt thanks goes out to Esteban for sharing these awesome stickers. I feel like the Transformers have now been much more throughly covered on Peel Here, not to mention fleshing out the lenticular collections from before and such.

Next week we'll get back to our regularly scheduled topic, Michael Jackson, and I'll consider moonwalking in place for the duration of the time it takes me to write the column. See you in seven…

Hoover sent me a great link to a series of reviews by Fred Meyer (of Joe*Battlelines) on the new G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary line of action figures that are just now starting to hit store shelves. I mentioned them a little while ago, and I've been looking forward to them since I don't have any of my original figures anymore and because they looked to be very much in the vein of the Transformers Classics line, which was pretty awesome. From the promo pictures the figures looked amazingly detailed and appeared to be molded so that they are faithful to both the original character packaging artwork as well as coming pretty close to the designs on the original cartoon. Though some of the figures look better than others, I pretty much resigned myself to getting them all which was eventually made unavoidable since they're being packaged in special edition 5 packs, and I'm not sure if they're going to be available individually.

Fred Meyer has done a bang up job reviewing this new line of figures, which points to the line not quite seeming as cool as they did at first. It seems that there is a pretty large form vs. function issue with the figures in that Hasbro has ditched the O-ring design of the past 25 years in favor of a more realistic set of articulation points, that in the end seem to hinder movement and pose-ability which is sort of a backfire in design. Honestly, I'm typically not that much of a stickler for massive articulation, as it tends to make figures look all lanky and over-jointed, so I'm not sure if this is going to bug me as much. Actually, even though the molds are pretty darn awesome, I see a pretty big issue with the whole pivot-able head on top of a ball joint. From most angles it makes the jaws of the figures look like they are two feet long, or the necks elongated. Characters with helmets seem to be less effected by this design, but it's still noticeable. I'm sure when I see the actual figure it'll be much less of an issue as they're a lot smaller than they appear in most photos, but close up it's pretty ugly. In fact when you see the close-up photos there seems to be an odd texture to the plastic that makes the figures look weird, which once again I'm sure won't nearly be as much of an issue in the actual toy.

Anyway, if you want to check out the reviews, click on the figure below to be magically whisked away to some pretty fine action figure reviewing…

Well, in case you've been living under a rock, which basically describes my living situation (being without local or cable TV, not to mention avoiding magazines and newspapers), you might have noticed that a little film called Transformers came out this past week. I haven't seen it yet and honestly I'm probably going to pass on it, though I may break down and catch a matinee this weekend. It's kind of weird for me since of all the summer movies this year, this one seems to be tailor made for me, I mean I love the original cartoon and toy line, and I’m into reliving 80s properties, but for the first time it seems like this dip into my childhood nostalgia really isn't aimed at me.

A few years ago there was a big resurgence in the whole Masters of the universe line with a new cartoon (as well as DVD release of the original), re-issues of some of the classic toys, and a new toy line that was both faithful and yet also very re-inventive. To me this was a great example of re-launching a property to a niche fan market while also broadening the scope to encompass a new generation of kids. Unfortunately I don't think this was a very profitable re-launch, and it seemed to more or less disappear from TV and store shelves after a year or two.

This time, with Transformers, I believe a new tactic is being used, which mostly ignores the niche market of the fans, and is keeping its sights on reinventing the concept from the ground up. The producers, writers, and the director of this new film are looking to capture the widest audience possible, which means making a lot of concessions in the story telling process to please so many different expectations. I think for me, this is the largest turn-off for the film, and not the fact that the robots look nothing like the G1 designs, or that the characters seem so different. When I look back on the first Transformers movie, a very similar tactic was chosen, at least on the surface, where for the most part all new characters were introduced, and the ones that remained were killed off or drastically changed (I mean Insecticons and seekers changing into Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps for crying out loud.) I think the difference though was that even for its divergence from the original show (including adding a whole new continuity), it was still aiming at a specific audience, or at least it was written in such a way that it was suitable for many audiences, but directed toward one. Being suitable for many and being written for the broadest audience possibly are two completely different beasts, and I think broad just isn't for me.

Anyway, since this has been on my mind a bit lately, I thought I'd share my other small bit of Transformers sticker goodness that I have in my collection to sort of bookend one of the first Peel Here columns I posted back in November. When I started searching for Transformers stickers I sort of hit a wall in terms of what was made vs. what is still available. Other than the lenticular stickers (which also doubled as puffy stickers) and the Panini sticker book that was produced after the movie, there weren't a whole lot of other stickers, at least that I know of. I couldn't find any basic puffy stickers or hallmark sticker sheets (though I believe there has to have been some produced), and though there were stickers issued as chase items with a set of cards, their very expensive and kind of rare. The only other example that I've found so far is the Colorforms Lazer Blazers hologram sticker set from 1984.


Like many of these Lazer Blazers sets, these Transformers stickers seem like they would be part of a series since it's rare to see merchandizing focusing almost strictly on one character, let alone that character being a villain, but I think that these are it. As I've mentioned before, I am very partial to the Lazer Blazers stickers even though I'm not a huge fan of holograms in general. There's something awesome about the dichotomy between the mostly black background and the very large rainbow-tastic font and border, compounded by the rainbow shimmer of the holograms that makes them very attractive to me. It doesn't hurt that Colorforms chose to take advantage of the great painted artwork from the Hasbro packaging either; all told the design on these stickers and the packaging just pops.

When I was trying to get the best color effect in the holograms while scanning them, I noticed a weird effect that would happen when the light from the scanner was passed across the stickers from side to side instead of top to bottom. It actually negated all of the color and left just the blacks and whites hidden inside the hologram. It's sort of like the pencils and inks in a comic book minus the color. Unfortunately this also highlights the years worth of scratches that the holograms have taken, even through the intact outer cellophane wrapping.

What also sort of cracked me up a bit was that when I was looking at just this line art I noticed that none of the background Autobots in the bottom left sticker seem like actual characters. They all seem to be weird generic amalgamations of characters, so you have the one on the left that has some aspects of Wheeljack's appearance, yet he's got a pretty normal face instead of the weird cheek protrusions that would light up when he talked. Megatron, on the other hand, is surrounded by the Decepticon seekers, Ravage, and Laserbeak, so I guess the artists and designers were only paying attention half of the time.

Next week on Peel Here I'm gonna put on my white sequined glove, let the llamas and monkeys out of their cages, and set my hair on fire while I dance in front of a huge neon Pepsi sign as I break out my embarrassingly large collection of Michael Jackson stickers.

So recently, and I use recently in the loosest way possible (and in comparison to my obsession with 20-30 year old nostalgia), I got into a French/Japanese cartoon from the 80s called the Mysterious Cities of Gold. I'm not sure how well known the cartoon is, I have trouble gauging the extent to which some of the cartoons that I love from the 80s have ensconced themselves into pop culture. On the one hand shows like G.I. Joe, the Transformers, He-Man and Thundercats seem very well known (which goes to show why they all had pretty speedy TV on DVD releases and retro merchandising ala Hot Topic or product line relaunches), but then there are other shows that I'm not so sure about, stuff like Turbo Teen, Kidd Video, Count Duckula or Mysterious Cities of Gold. There are fan sites, and Count Duckula even had a season 1 DVD release, but these are also shows that I get questions about from time to time (for example, e-mails asking if I can identify the show with the guy who turns into a car whenever he gets overheated or stressed.)

Mysterious Cities of Gold was certainly off my radar as a kid as I completely missed out on it until about 2001 or so. It originally aired on Nickelodeon around the 1982-1989 timeframe, I'm not sure exactly when. TV.com and IMDB have it listed as 1982, but my friend Kevin (who introduced me to the show) watched it regularly and I doubt it was when he was five, which just seems a bit too early. Wiki doesn't help as it lists the show as airing in the US in the "later 80s". Either way I missed it, even though I was a Nickelodeon junkie and really dug the foreign cartoons and shows that the station was known to air (like Count Duckula, Danger Mouse, Inspector Gadget, segments of Pinwheel, Belle and Sebastian, etc.) Maybe I was too busy trying to catch You Can't Do That on Television and Out of Control reruns.

Well like I mentioned above, my friend Kevin was a fan of the show and after he got out of college he picked up a set of bootleg VHS videos off of eBay with all 39 English dub episodes and over the next three years we'd get together occasionally and bang out an episode or two, slowly making our way through the show. That was a really cool experience for me as I got a chance to tag along on a friend's nostalgia trip, something that I could relate to, yet was still new for me, and in the end I found a sort of lost gem from childhood. Getting together to watch the show was also the beginning of a regular movie night for us, which has been a weekly mainstay for years now, so I've sort of attached a retro-nostalgia to the show.

For those who aren't familiar with the cartoon, or for those who want to get a little spark of nostalgia, the show focused on three children, Esteban, Zia and Tao and their adventures seeking out (say it with me) the mysterious cities of gold in South America in the 1500s. Though there are a lot of fantastical elements (and eventually it devolves into Alien/master race territory), one of the coolest aspects of the show is how grounded in history and reality it is, which is certainly in the grand tradition of 80s cartoons trying to slip in a spoonful educational content with every mouthful of action and adventure. In fact the cartoon was followed by mini live action documentaries on the non-fiction aspects of the show in many of the countries where it originally aired. Add to this the fact that it's a rare example of a period 80s cartoon with tinges of archeology and fantastic steampunk-esque technology and traps (ala Indiana Jones), it's hard to deny the appeal of the show.

Unfortunately the show is in a sort of DVD limbo, as it exists in various language dubs that were distributed by a handful of different companies, so there isn't really one version of the show. There was a French release of the show but it didn't contain the English dub, and currently it isn't even known if masters of the English dub even still exist. There are a lot of dedicated bootleggers though and if you look hard enough you can find copies of the show on DVD that have the picture content ripped from the French release mixed with the audio from various English VHS copies that were taped off of Nickelodeon in the 80s. The final product is good but not great.

Anyway, here's a breakdown of the opening credit sequence along with MP3s of both the

English Theme Song and the

French Version of the Theme Song (in much better quality.)



The show opens with narration describing the setting…

It is the 16th century. From all over Europe great ships sale west to conquer the new world, the Americas. These men eager to seek their fortune, to find new adventures in new lands.


They long to cross uncharted seas and discover unknown countries. To find secret gold on a mountain trail high in the Andes. They dream of following the path of the setting sun that leads to Elderado, and the Mysterious Cities Of Gold.


The song then kicks in while the credit sequence shifts to Esteban. I thought it was interesting that the production on this credit sequence is very similar to that of Danger Mouse and Count Duckula which has elements of animation mixed in with augmented live action shots (made to look psuedo-animated.) It's both very 80s and very British, ala the Terry Gilliam shorts from Monty Python (and yes I know he's American, but his work still feels very British to me), as well as the opening credits from You Can't Do That on TV (a knock off of the Python animations.)


There's a lot of water in this sequence as well, jumping into water, screwing around in water, sailing, etc.














There are also lot of instances of anachronistic ancient technology in the show; one of the coolest being the Golden Condor airship from the end of this credits sequence. It's definitely a striking element from the show and another example of the myriad of awesome flying machines in shows of the 80s. Between this, the Maraj from the Silverhawks, the Sky Strikers and Rattlers from G.I. Joe, the Veritechs from Robotech, Airwolf, Blue Thunder, the Batwing, and a million others, flying in the 80s was certainly in style.


This is certainly a show that I want to re-watch someday. Hopefully sooner or later an official English dub will surface. Until then this is the perfect example of the positive side of bootlegging, and outlets like Eyebum and Youtube, which help to keep shows like this alive.

I'm back for week 28 of Peel Here, which also happens to be the 4th week of exploring my 80s Super Hero sticker collection, not to mention the DC Comics portion of the month long exploration. This isn't the last week as there are practically 5 weeks in this May, so there will be one more to follow.

Now to dig deeper into the DC Comics branded stickers of the 80s I wanted to take a look at the 1984 Topps sticker card set for the cult flick Supergirl. Now I completely missed Supergirl in the theaters, but I saw it a million times on HBO and even though the film is sort of the weird bastard cousin of the Superman flicks, I remember having some fond memories. Hell, I even liked Superman III and IV as a kid, so that should illustrate my bad taste in films.

Supergirl was more or less the last attempt to revive the Superman franchise after Superman III was a bomb at the box office. The producers of the series, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, had purchased the rights to make Supergirl at the same time they bought the rights to Superman. The Salkinds (along with Richard Donner) were pioneers in the area of movie franchises, as they not only had a hand in the filming of Superman and Superman II back to back, but also were, from the get go, thinking of spin-offs and future sequels. With Supergirl the Salkinds hoped to continue on with franchise while giving Reeves and that story line a rest for a while, hoping that some new blood in the series would reinvigorate the series. They took a very similar approach to the film as they did to the first Superman by casting an unknown in the lead role (Helen Slater) as well as packing the rest of the cast with big names like Mia Farrow, Peter O'Toole, and Faye Dunaway.

Though the film fared poorly in theaters, it was popular enough to be merchandised a little, most notably with a poster magazine and a couple series of stickers. There were some puffy stickers, but the really nice set of stickers came from Topps. Typically Topps would license the rights to produce trading card sets off of films and TV shows, and then a lot of times they would produce a chase sticker card sub-set, but for the Supergirl film they changed their format a little to combine both the trading and the sticker cards. Basically they quadrupled their normal sticker count, from 11 to 44, and mixed the sticker card backs between puzzle pieces and movie story scenes (there were 10 puzzle backs and 33 story backs.) The story backs were similar to their basic card sets in that the contained images from the film, but instead of having a synopsis (like on the reverse of a basic trading card) they inserted stage directions and speech bubbles to relate the story. This isn't new, Topps also did similar things with other cards sets, namely Mork and Mindy and Three's Company, but I believe it was the first time they did this with sticker card backs.


Though the property is basically unisex in its appeal, I believe these stickers were designed more for girls than boys as you can see in some of the above captions. The even Supergirl gets the blues card in particular is pretty much standard 80s girl fare (right up there with cute animals doing ballet or gymnastics, unicorns, flying piano keyboards, and pictures of roller skates.) The images on the stickers were in a loose chronological order and were numbered via the story card backs. Actually, in essence the stickers acted like the card back, but since that's weird, I decided to present them in the reverse.)


Also, since there were around 22 additional stickers to have images for (since Topps usually dealt in 11 or 22 sticker card sets) a lot of these stickers are sort of hokey with mind numbing captions like the above Friendship is hard to beat. These are rounded out by a number of iconic Supergirl stickers (either in flight or in battle ready poses), so it sort of balances out. Above we also get a look at another tie-in character to the regular Superman universe in the form of Lucy Lane (who has some tie to Lois, probably a cousin, as Supergirl is Superman's cousin.)


Actually, some of these stickers might as well double as Valentine's they're so inane. Like I said, definitely marketed towards girls here. Another weird plot device in this movie is the exchange of Kryptonite for sorcery as a weakness for super powered beings. The story involves Supergirl chasing a mystical object, an Omegahedron (which has the power to create when used properly), to Earth where she realizes that she has special powers thanks to Earth's yellow sun. The Omegahedron falls into the hands of Faye Dunaway who fancies herself a witch, and with the object actually gains sorcery powers. She uses these to banish Supergirl to the Phantom Zone, the place of punishment introduced in the first Superman movie (it's where General Zod and his cronies were banished, you know, that clear pane of glass floating in space that looks like a bad album cover.)


Supergirl ends up powerless in the Phantom Zone, but is saved by her mentor (Peter O'Toole) who sacrifices himself to free her so that she can go back to earth and save the world from a mystical Faye Dunaway. There's also a bo-hunky stud somewhere in the mix, as well as bumbling evil sidekicks, and an appearance from Marc McClure, reprising his role of Jimmy Olsen from the other Superman movies.


Christopher Reeve was supposed to make a cameo appearance, but bowed out due to script changes and possible disagreements with the creative team. I believe the original script called for Supergirl to save a defeated Superman from the Faye Dunaway character, but that was changed as production ramped up.


Like I said earlier, this set consisted of one 10 card puzzle as well as 33 (32 if you don't count the above title card) story cards.


Here's what the completed puzzle looks like. It's a pretty cool image, though not necessarily what one might want out of a Supergirl poster.


Here's the basic story of Supergirl in a very inanely condensed fashion…










For anyone interested, the film was released twice on DVD. Once by Anchor Bay in a nice 2-Disc special edition (that unfortunately now out of print) which featured both the extended international edition of the film as well as a longer original cut, commentary, and a making of featurette, and then is was recently re-released by Warner Brothers as part of their marketing ramp-up for the Superman Returns flick (though not in the huge deluxe Superman box set) and though it's only the 125 minute cut of the film, it retained the commentary track. Also, as I learned recently, Helen Slater is in fact not related to Christian Slater, a rumor that began after the two starred together (as brother and sister) in the very underrated Legend of Billie Jean.

Come on back next week as we finish off our look at 80s super hero stickers with some more DC sticker swag.

Of all the TV shows that I watched obsessively as a kid there were always a handful that I completely missed the boat on and for years have been mighty curious about. In particular I've never seen any episodes of M*A*S*H, Magnum P.I. or WKRP in Cincinnati all of which had a pretty big impact on the pop culture of the 70s and 80s. The first two have since been released on DVD and they are on my Netflix queue, but for as long as TV has been blowing up on DVD, the latter, WKRP, has been considered the show that will always remain in limbo in terms for re-release because of insane music licensing issues. I pretty much figured that I'd never get a chance to watch the show as I don't subscribe to cable and I tend to shy away from bootlegs as much as I can, but to my amazement the first season of the series was actually released on DVD just last month.

Well, I took the time to sit down with the set recently and to see what all the hubbub is about. Lets get some of the basics on the set out of the way and take a look at the packaging and what's in the box. Unlike some of the newer TV on DVD sets from companies like Paramount that are switching over to a super slim packaging scheme, this set, released by Fox is sticking to a more traditional box set feel with the season spread over 3 discs which are packaged in two slim cases. The art and design of the packaging is pretty cool with a nice production photo on top of a minimal black background, and some nice sublte use of color as a border (unlike the eye ache that is the That '70s Show covers.) The only bit of flash is in the prismatic foil inlayed into in the title font, which is actually quite subdued when compared to some other sets. I really dig the use of actual production artwork on the cover in lieu of a hasty Photoshop job, which is typically what we tend to see, especially on older TV on DVD sets released today.


Actually, to get an idea of what the cover could have looked like you don't need to go any further than the slim cases for the set…


At the end of the day I actually dig the this generic colorful artwork in the interior, I guess I've just got a pet peeve about bad cover artwork.

This complete first season set includes all 22 episodes from the 1978-1979 opening season of the show spread out over three discs, with 8 episodes on the first two discs, and 6 on the third disc.


Here's an example of the episode menu screens…


As far as Special Features go, this set is better off than most, but far from loaded. There are two commentary tracks, one on part 1 of the pilot, and one on the episode Turkeys Away. Both commentaries feature the show's creator/writer/director Hugh Wilson and stars Loni Anderson (who played Jennifer Marlowe) and Frank Bonner (who played Herb Tarlek). You can access either commentary by selecting the episode, and then picking the commentary audio track from the episode sub menu, or as a nice easy alternative both are accessible via the disc one special features menu.


Though short, these commentaries strike a nice balance between behind the scenes insight and enjoyable cast reunions and ruminations (particularly on an aspect of Loni Anderson's physique that is often a running gag on the show.) For instance, you're just as likely to hear the cast talk about how the character evolved, even after the first episode (when Loni's character, Jennifer, insults her boss, Arthur Carlson, behind his back, and then in subsequent episodes switches to a more motherly role), than you are to hear the three laughing for minutes on end or pausing to watch Howard Hessman's Johnny Fever ad lib, which though funny, is distracting as far as commentary goes. There's another great story about Loni Anderson's "assets" that CBS was all up in arms over. I guess there were too many scenes where Loni was nipping and therefore the wardrome department had to end up covering her nipples with Band-Aids to keep them from showing through her blouses and sweaters. I wonder who got the job of applying those?

This set also has two mini featurettes, both about 7 minutes long, one that focuses on Loni Anderson and her character Jennifer Marlowe, and a second that focuses on the episode Fish Story. Both of these featurettes include appearances by Frank Bonner, Tim Reid, Loni Anderson and Hugh Wilson.










Now before I get into the issues I have with this set I'd like to address the quality of the show in terms of both visually and how well it holds up over almost thirty years.

As far as the visual quality goes, it's about a 3.5 out of 5 in terms of the sharpness of the image. This MTM show was notoriously shot on video (unlike other MTM productions including the Mary Tyler Moore show ) to take advantage of a loophole in the music licensing fee rules, so the show's visual quality was low to begin with. I believe that most if not all of these episodes are also the syndication versions, which had to be altered for both time and content (again those pesky music licensing issues) so new master copies were made which are a generation past the original airing copies. Even with that in mind the show looks pretty good. There's a little bit of haziness to some scenes, and I noticed some slight ghosting of the images in a few places, but it's more or less presented in the quality that it originally aired, and I don't think there was too much remastering that could be done.

As far as how well the show holds up, I'd have to say again that I'm coming from the perspective of someone who's never really seen the show. To be honest I thought that the show held up very well, and aside from a few references to some older pop culture icons I feel that it's just as funny now as it was at the time. Granted the show is a sitcom, and you have to be into that style of humor (running gags, over the top characters, etc.), but when viewed next to more contemporary shows like New Radio, it's almost indistinguishable except for a few obviously dated qualities like Venus Fly Trap's very pimpin' attire or Herb's horribly 70s swinging wardrobe.


The entire premise of the show is set up in the two-part pilot, which opens with one of the show's main attractions, Loni Anderson as the WKRP radio station secretary Jennifer Marlowe (who does almost no secretarial duties.)


In fact one of the longest running gags opens the show as Herb, the slightly out of touch swinging sales rep (played by Frank Bonner) comes strolling in and immediately begins slinging a barrage of horrible pick-up lines to Jennifer.


Then just as swift as can be we're introduced to the crux of the show when Andy Travis (played by Gary Sandy) is introduced as the new station manager. It’s through Andy that we get introduced to the rest of the cast in quick succession including Arthur Carlson (played by Gordon Jump) as the son of the owner of the station.


Andy meets Les Nessman, the resident news/sports/weather/hog futures man on the scene (or more likely no where near the scene as we get to see his impression of a traffic helicopter that he fakes on air) who is apparently clumsy as he sports a band-aid or bandage in every episode (an un explained running gag that is also an in-joke reference to the rehearsal for the pilot where the actor, Richard Sanders, was hurt by a light and had to wear a bandage in the pilot episode.) This continues on and on until all of the main characters are established.


One of the strongest moments in the first episode involves Howard Hesseman as Johnny (who has a different last name for every single DJ job he's held/been fired from) who is the daytime DJ reduced to playing very old, very "bad" choral music. Travis comes in and institutes a format change to top 40 rock and roll which both brings the station and Johnny (who re-christens himself Dr. Johnny Fever) back to life. There is a great moment as Johnny pauses as the last song of the old format is playing and in the middle he scratches the needle across the record as he switches over to the stations first rock tune. This actually brings up another interesting point that was mentioned in the commentary, that the producers and writers of the show were well aware that radio stations had abandoned using actual records in the booth by this point, that they had switched to using cassettes and reel tapes, but they felt that the imagery of records and albums was too cool to pass up, and I'd have to agree. Seeing Johnny literally rip an album to pieces off of a turntable makes for a great moment in the show.


In this scene we're also introduced to Bailey Quarters (played by Jan Smithers, an actress discovered as a teenager when she played hooky from school and was photographed on the back of a motorcycle in a bikini by a guy from Time Magazine and subsequently made the cover) who is promoted from being a gofer to Travis' assistant.


The episode ends with Arthur Carlson's mother, Momma, (played by Oscar nominated Sylvia Sidney, who was replaced after the pilot, possibly for clashing with the rest of the much younger cast) who owns the station and hates rock music comes to shut the station down, but Travis and Carlson convince her to keep it open. The last gag, and last main character to be introduced, is when Travis shows in his new-hire DJ, Venus Fly Trap (played by Tim Reid) a very pimped out, successful New Orleans disc jockey. This cements the psuedo counter culture ideal the station is shooting for and the style of comedy that will follow for the next four seasons.


Now, as far as the issues I had with this DVD set. WKRP, like I mentioned earlier, is notorious for being the perfect example of a show that would not be able to withstand the financial burden of music licensing, which would in turn keep it from being released on DVD. But it is on DVD, so how did that happen?

Well, the studio decided to strip the show of most of it's original music, replacing it with generic or sound-alike tunes, as well as editing the show to remove any plot points or vocal mentions of specific songs that were removed. Also, again like I mentioned earlier, I'm coming from the perspective of someone who didn't watch the show when it originally aired, or in its first batch of reruns, so honestly most of the music changes have completely slipped past my radar. Now for a more hardcore fan though, this might be very jarring. There are a couple of sites that have kept up with the music replacements and edits, such as Jamie Weinman's blog.

Now, I believe in addition to this, and like a lot of TV on DVD sets these days, the studio has either decided to use the syndication version of these episodes (which are cut for both time and content, and since the WKRP syndicated episodes were cut for music issues in the early 90s already this may be the case) because of music issues, or because it's the only version they own for distribution. Either way, these are not the uncut original versions out side of the music scenes. I'm not sure if Hugh Wilson was aware of this as he and the cast members allude in the commentary that these episodes are restored, or original versions. In fact Loni Anderson makes a hilarious comment about how an entire plot was removed from the syndication version of an episode involving her character getting a sex change. I'm not sure when or if this happened on the show, but it’s something that I'd hate to miss if it was edited out. I also found a separate guide to the music replacements and edits the show underwent in the 90s for its second run of syndication, also written by Jamie Weinman, that goes into some of the who's and why's of the situation.

Randy Salas of the Minneapolis Star Tribune also wrote an article about the whole situation, which the awesome TV on DVD.com passed on to its readers a few weeks back. I know a lot of fans are up in arms about the whole mess, and it's gotten to a point where the DVD is rated fairly low on sites like Amazon.com. Granted there are alternatives to cutting up a show, like having a smaller distribution company like Shout! Factory release the show, though at a much higher price point (as they did with Freaks and Geeks a couple years ago), but it begs the question, would people plunk down $60-$100 for a single season of a sitcom. In this day and age where we're getting used to paying $20 for TV DVD sets, I think not. Also, this first season set, like most 1st season sets, is more a less a test to see if it's financially viable to continue with further seasons. There are a ton of catalog releases that die upon the release of the initial season, shows like Growing Pains, Gimmie a Break, Murphy Brown, and The Fresh Prince, shows that are hugely popular but just don't sell on DVD, so the future seasons are flung back into the studio vaults. I think that this is going to be the case with WKRP, since so many fans seem to be shunning this release, which I think is pretty sad because I enjoyed the heck out of watching it.

Granted, I can totally see the fan's point of view, and if it had been a show or movie that I loved and was changed I'd be just as pissed, but there are always going to be concessions in life, and it is just a TV show. Sometimes fighting the good fight won't lead to victory; it'll only lead to a much longer battle where no one wins. If enough interest was shown in this set, and enough of those people who purchased it also voiced their concerns to both Fox and companies like the ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC who license the music, than maybe things would change. Instead I think this set won't sell well, and sooner or later it'll go out of print and that will be that.

All in all, I would say that if you can find this set on sale and you're even the least bit interested or curious it'd be worth picking it up, if only to show the studio that there is interest in catalog TV series on DVD.

At long last, and with a sigh of relief from yours truly, there is finally some concrete information on the upcoming release of The Monster Squad on DVD. Lionsgate will release the DVD on July 24, 2007. Here's a look at the cover art...


Now I'm not a big fan of this cover. It exemplifies everything that is wrong with most DVD cover artwork. Not only is it NOT based on any of the original poster or home video release artwork, but it's a terrible mock-up of new and old images that makes it look like it's trying to cash in on a bunch of unrelated films, not to mention that it misses the point of the film by about three inches. First off, it looks like an amalgamation of the Pan's Labyrinth posters, the Bridge to Terabithia poster, and hell, it even invokes the Team America poster as well, which is kind of silly.


Why exactly does the kid have a rifle ammo belt on? Or a short sword for that matter? Not that I'm trying to be super nerdy picky or anything but the main weapons used in the movie were a complex bow, a shotgun, a pistol, a few stakes, and a slice of freakin' pizza (with loads of garlic.) Now other than Photoshopping in a trio of the monsters at the top of the artwork, it's basically lacks the feel of the movie.  I hate that they ditched any artwork of the original actors and just went with a new kid that sort of looks like an Andre Gower clone.  Here's the original poster in all it's hand-painted 80's glory...


At the end of the day, I don't really care. I'm just happy this movie is finally getting the release it deserves. Hell, I would have been happy with a bare bones single disk at this point. If the cover art really bugs you, then I suggest you send Andre Gower an e-mail as he states on his site so that he can forward them on to the appropriate people. Speaking of which, Mr. Gower (who played Sean in the Monster Squad) has a pretty cool site with some MS trivia, links and other fun odds and ends.

For me, this is the culmination of 20 years worth of waiting for a nice copy of the flick that I can call my own. In fact, today is almost a year to the day when I forwarded the plea to get the Monster Squad on DVD. It was last year around this time when some of the Ain't it Cool News people set up a reunion screening at the Alamo Drafthouse that would start the ball rolling on straightening out the mired rights issues and focus the interest in this film.

I saw it in the theater when I was 10 years old with a friend, Bryan Borsom, in 1987. We'd seen the trailers and I remember scanning the newspaper for our local theaters to see when it'd be playing in our area. I don't know what it was about the trailer, but I was super jazzed to see this film. I think I was just at that perfect age, I was on the verge of leaving elementary and moving into middle school, so a huge part of me felt like that was the last summer where I could really feel like a kid. I was about to give up carrying a lunch box, I just got into skateboarding (with an older cooler middle school crowd), I was pretty much graduating from Bunnicula to Stephen King novels, and Metallica was the only band in the world for me.

One of the things that I remember most about that Saturday is that we (Bryan and me) had planned on seeing both the Monster Squad and the Garbage Pail Kids movie, but neither of us had enough money for both. So after we finished watching the Squad kick Dracula's butt back into limbo we begged our way into a free screening of the GPK flick by telling the clerk at the customer service desk that our mothers weren't going to be able to pick us up for three more hours. Man, I was a dork as a kid. In the end I'm glad my hard-earned allowance money went towards Monster Squad as it's by far the better and more deserving flick. When Bryan and I were finally picked up, we spend the ride home arguing about what Sean yells to Horace when confronted by the wolfman. I kept saying it was "Kick him in the nards" while Bryan assured me it was "Kick him in the balls." Once again, time would answer the question as male 30-somethings everywhere will attest that kicking a monster in the NARDS is the best way to go.

I'm not sure if the letter writing campaign that director Fred Dekker suggested was the straw that broke the camel's back, but I know I wrote my fare share. I intended to write like thirty separate letters, and I managed to do about half of that before I felt like I was writing to a brick wall. Then a few months ago the DVD release rumors began to gain steam. Granted, it was about the third or fourth time in as many years that internet rumors started circulating, but this was the first time when both the director and the actors started to chime in on the subject.

Today the whole thing really feels solid for the first time in ages as I read this post on Ain't It Cool, and saw it mirrored around the net. The bad cover art being released is actually what makes it feel real to me. I know this sounds silly and all, I mean it's just a silly kids movie from the 80's, but somehow it feels like it's my movie, and I'd be willing to bet that a lot of kids growing up at the time feel like this. For years I was the only person I knew who loved this movie to death, to the extent of buying an old rental copy from a store for the hefty price of $30 (at a time when the average new video was about $5.) None of my friends felt the way about MS that they felt about say the Goonies, or even Space Camp. So it's always felt like my movie.

Here's a list of the special features that have been announced on this 2-Disc set:
- Audio commentary by writer/director Fred Dekker and cinematographer Bradford May
- Audio commentary by Fred Dekker and actors Andre Gower, Ashley Bank and Ryan Lambert
- "Wolf Man's Got Nards! The Making of The Monster Squad" documentary
- Deleted and extended scenes
- Monster Mania reunion featurette
- Vintage interview with Tom Noonan (in Frankenstein's monster makeup!)
- Poster and still gallery
- Theatrical trailer
- TV spot
- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen

Looking back at all of the bootlegs I've purchased for this film, this set pretty much covers everything I had before (trailer, widescreen, poster and still gallery) with more than enough additional features. Though I'm not fond of cast commentaries, I'm really looking forward to the director/cinematographer commentary track as it seems like Dekker is genuinely into this flick. I hope it's not all, "Hey, remember when we made this movie? Yeah, it was a blast." I also hope the making of documentary is a little more than a studio fluff piece, and seeing that the film is 20 years old this year I'd hope it would be new stuff and not an archival "making of". It'll also be cool to hear Tom Noonan in the vintage interview. He's a pretty interesting fellow whose performance in Manhunter is pretty imposing. He's got a website up where it looks like he hosts workshops on acting, directing, and writing.

As far as why there might be as much interest in this film after all these years you don't have to look much further than some of the creative talents behind the monster creation and writing. The legendary Stan Winston was given the task to create the re-vamped look of the classic Universal monsters, and he did so with an amazing gusto and a welcome realism. The film features one of the best Creature suits I've ever seen, not to mention one hell of an imposing werewolf, and a mummy that strikes a nice balance between Karloff and Jack Pierce's version and the current CGI crap fests that were the Stephen Sommers films. As far as the writing goes, Shane Black (he of Lethal Weapon fame, not to mention starring in Predator) was involved on the project, though I'm not sure to what capacity.

As far as the kids that starred in the film, most are either still active in the entertainment industry or are on their way back in. As I mentioned before Andre Gower is still active and I believe has begun work on his putting together his own film festival. Ryan Lambert (who played the older punk Rudy in MS, not to mention starring in Kids Incorporated, a show whose theme song will etch itself into your brain if you aren't careful) fronts a band called Elephone, and Ashley Bank (who played the young Phoebe the feeb) has grown up into a lovely woman who has worked in a more behind the scenes capacity. Sadly, Brent Chalem, who played Horace (and who exhibited the exact same fashion sense that I did, same T&C t-shirts, and surf shorts), died of pneumonia in 1997 at the age of 22 while he was attending law school. Robby Kiger, who played Patrick, pretty much fell of the map though, and in some of the recent interviews I've read with the other cast members no one seems to have kept in touch. Michael Faustino (who played the cute Eugene and who is the brother of David Faustino of Married with Children fame) has also sort of dropped off the map.

I also found Duncan Regehr's art site a couple weeks ago, so if you were ever interested in what a once great Dracula actor does on the side of his acting gigs, take a gander. I also thought I should mention that Michael Sembello has a site up. Sembello recorded the awesome Monster Squad theme song "Rock Until You Drop", not to mention music for flicks such as Flashdance. He's said for years that he'd eventually release a nice high quality MP3 of the MS song on his site, but has yet to do so. Carl Thibault, the man that was under all of the wolfman make-up (not to be confused with Jon Gries, the actor that played the human incarnation of the wolfman) has also struck out on his own creative endeavor recently with his first directorial feature film, the Garage.

What's truly an awesome coincidence for me is that July 24th is just one week after my 30th birthday, so I'll truly get the perfect geek present this year. Man, I can't freakin' wait to see this in nice quality DVD. In 2007 wolfman indeed has nards.

I swear to Christmas, it's been such a crappy week here in the house of Branded. I've been dealing with so many car related issues that I swear, I wish it would surprise me by turning out to be an Autobot, transforming in front of me, do a little dance, and then get the crap kicked out of it by a passing Decepticon jet. As a semi-related shout out to all of the potential car keying vandals out there, don't do it. As angry as you may be, it's such a pointless act. First off, unless you sign your name in scratch on the car, it's anonymous, so your act will most likely not change anything that you're pissed off about.  Second the amount of damage done, though it seems trivial, is quite fucking expensive, which in the long run is only going to hurt everyone, as insurance companies will most likely cover these claim costs by raising rates across the board. Did I mention it's cowardly and freaking expensive (the estimate on my car is $4,000)? Anyway, enough negativity. On to the stickers!

So for the entire month of May, and in celebration of the new Spiderman flick about to hit theater screens, I figured it would be fun to explore a bunch of Marvel and DC super hero branded stickers. It just so happens that I have five columns worth of super hero stickers in my collection, so this should work out perfectly. So to kick things off I'm going to share a pretty cool set of Topps sticker cards for the awesome Incredible Hulk TV series.

As a kid growing up in the 80's I spent a good chunk of time being inundated with plenty of super hero related programming and merchandising, and pound for pound, my favorite character had to be the Hulk. Even though I was amazed that "a man could fly" in the Superman movies, even though Adam West made me giggle in the re-runs of the campy Batman live action show, and even though I watched Spiderman and his Amazing Friends religiously, I always came back to the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno live action series. One of my first plush toys was a stuffed Hulk doll that had Velcro on his hands so that he could grab and hold onto things. I also vaguely remember having one of those plastic Hulk halloween costumes, you know the kind, with the half mask and the vinyl pants suit. The Hulk was also the star of one of my favorite books that I checked out of the school library a million times (which I've mentioned before.)

There's just something magical in the transformation of Bruce Banner (David if you only watched the show) into the muscle bound, green skinned Hulk. I think there's something primordial in a young boy's mind that can completely relate to this anger and frustration and it's got to be one of the most basic and obvious of super hero archetypes. The series did an excellent job of bringing this character to life for me, even if (at age three) I didn't understand everything that was happening in each episode. I know the series was pretty popular after it's initial made for TV pilot movie hit the air in 1978. It lasted through 4 and a half seasons and a handful of additional made for TV movies that helped to launch my interest in comic collecting in the late 80s (spurred on by guest appearances of Thor and Daredevil in two of the MFTV movies.)


This Topps sticker card sub-set does a pretty good job of capturing both the feel of the show as well as providing a bunch of awesomely iconic Hulk stickers. There are 22 cards in the set, all of which have plain white backings. I'm not sure why there wasn't a puzzle included since these stickers came out in 1979 and there was already a Topps Buck Rogers set that used the puzzle gimmick. This set does a pretty good job of focusing on the Lou Ferrigno incarnation of the Hulk, with half of the stickers set up as portraits (with that great thick bordered Topps die-cut) and the other half as scenes involving the Hulk running or pushing things (as he was apt to do most of the time.) In fact in this first scan we can see the Hulk both pushing a rock and running through New York City (you can also sort of make out the fact that Lou Ferrigno was wearing green hulk booties in the third card on the end in the second column, as he didn't want to step on any needles, used condoms, or crack pipes as he ran through the 70's era Times Square.) There's also a nice shot of Bill Bixby with the initial "change" contacts in, one of the greatest TV money shots IMHO.


In this second scan of the set you can see where I swiped my Peel Here logo. This set, like the Buck Rogers, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Mork and Mindy sets don't yet feature the little "Peel Here" arrow, which I've felt was a very iconic part of the Topps stickers. I don't think this was introduced until the mid 80's, possibly with the release of the first Garbage Pail Kids series.

I really dig the production art used for card number 11, which shows Bill Bixby's Banner fading into Ferrigno's Hulk. That's always been my favorite piece of the TV series art. On the bottom left sticker we can also see that in one of the post action scenes, some of the green paint was wiped off of Ferrigno's hand. I read that he had to stay in a refrigerated trailer between takes so that he wouldn't sweat and cause all the paint to run off. It must have been a big hassle to shoot such a make-up heavy show in the late 70's, early 80's.


There are some interesting shots on these stickers as well. In the top left, sticker # 15, there is a rare shot of Ferrigno smiling, and in the bottom right, card # 20, we can see a clearer shot of the hulk in his "protective foot gear" booties. Also sort of interesting is card # 16 (top row center), which has some weird lighting making the Hulk look sort of red which is almost what happened on the production of the show. Apparently Kenneth Johnson (the executive producer on the Hulk series) wanted to change the Hulk's iconic green coloring to red to reflect the anger the character was feeling. This is just another entry in the long list of weird stuff that producers want to change for properties they work on, no matter how established in the public consciousness they are. I can just imagine a producer on the Spiderman flicks taking Sam Raimi aside and suggesting that Spidey wear a cape, you know so that people will know he's a super hero.


Another weird bit of trivia on the TV show that I read on IMDB is that the reason Johnson chose to change Bruce Banner to David is that he felt "Bruce" sounded too "gay". That's just silly.

On next week's Peel Here I'll delve a little further into the wonderful world of 80's Marvel super hero stickers.  Until then, don't key any cars or you'll make a kitten cry, and that's just mean…

So in the wake of my burgeoning interest in car flicks, post Death Proof, I finally got around to catching Vanishing Point, the 1971 road film that, like Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, is one long car chase.  This flick above all else, is the film most mentioned in Death Proof, both by the characters and with the use of the white 1970 Dodge Challenger that the girls are test driving at the end of the flick.  Like all the other car flicks I've seen lately, I tried to go into this with unspoiled and with an open mind.



Like Two-Lane Blacktop, this flick begins with a slow burn that builds up to become much more than the sum of its parts.  The inter-cutting of scenes with the main character Kowalski (played by Barry Newman) with those of DJ Super Soul (played by Cleavon Little) are first unexplained and odd, but soon become weirdly telepathic, where one character becomes the body and the other the voice of a being that is past it's time on this earth.  The films existential leaning, though, isn't as up front as Two-Lane Blacktop, as the director (Richard C. Sarafian) and the writers (Malcolm Hart & G. Cabrera Infante) very creatively insert some telling flashback sequences that throughout the film bring the audience up to speed with Kowalski and suggest some reasoning behind his long last stand on the road.

Though the film is structured a little more commercially viable than Two-Lane, it's not quite as much so as Dirty Mary Crazy Larry and not nearly as mundane as most of Gone in 60 seconds, so it's kind of cool to see a progression of existentialist road movies throughout the 70's.  It's kind of interesting to note that in TLB speed alienates, in DMCL and VP speed kills, and in GI60S speed titillates because by that point people were becoming so enamored by the action that they were probably looking past the meaning.  This is an downward spiral that action movies take throughout the 80s (with films like the Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run, and even to a point Top Gun) and which ends ultimately with films like Days of Thunder or Speed and its utterly pointless sequel, Speed 2: Speedier on a Boat No Less (or what ever the hell it was called.)  Car movies are all flash and hardly any substance anymore.  Stuff like the Fast and the Furious or the Transporter (though both fun and exciting) are simply eye candy.  Honestly, Death Proof isn't much better, but at least it turns its head back in the direction of the 70s flicks that it pays homage to.

I'm curious is this is one of the first times the where the whole DJ as a confidant/copilot concept makes it's way onto film.  It seems like a very stereotypical idea now, but I'm not sure where it came from.  I also really dig its telepathic inference, which reverberates nicely in later cinema like in the scenes between the Forest Whitaker titular character and Raymond (played by Isaach De Bankole) in Ghostdog: Way of the Samurai, where even though neither character can understand each others language, they still hold up their ends of a conversation through some sort of unexplained telepathy.

I also think that this is a pretty tight example of counter culture cinema, in the vein of Easy Rider, so it's sort of funny to see that there was a made for TV remake in '97 starring Viggo Mortensen that completely ditches Kowalski's drug fueled existential ride to the end with a plot about having to get home for the birth of his baby.  That just sounds so silly.

It's funny how things change over time. When I first started Branded in the 80's I wasn't sure how often I would post or what exactly, so I began to use drawings I've done to liven up the entries. Well over time I sort of stopped doing that, and because I've been spending the majority of my free time on this site, I haven't even really drawn much in awhile so I haven't even really had anything new to share.

Well I received a commission a couple of months ago from a lady at work to interpret a poem of into some black and white line work. Though it wasn't quite in the realm of what I typically draw my inspiration from, I think I did an okay job on it. If nothing else it let me stretch my drawing hand out a bit from the normal monsters and odd disturbing imagery...



This was also a first for me in terms of actually being compensated for my one of my commissioned drawings. I haven't really put myself out in terms of freelancing or anything more than as a hobby (I am well aware of my limitations), but on occasion I've taken the odd job, ever with the promise of payment, though so far, never with any type of follow through on the promise. Well I was more than adequately compensated for this drawing, enough so that I felt like I should put in a few extra hours by laying down some color on the line work. I think I've mentioned this before, but I don't do well with physical coloring (like pencils or paint) and prefer a more cartoon-y or comic book-y look to my drawings so I typically use Photoshop to get a cel animation look to the color. Here's the outcome for the above line work.



Anyway, just felt like posting this as an aside to the normal 80's junk I go on about.

I thought I'd take a minute today to do a quick review of an awesome new restaurant just down the street from me here in Duluth, Georgia, Taste of Chicago. Well the sign out front actually says Taste of Chicago Wings, but I think even though they serve hot wings that part of the sign is a hold over from the last place that occupied the space (which indecently had awesome hot wings but was mysteriously shut down one day.)


Taste of Chicago opened up a couple weeks ago and I stopped in for lunch because they had a huge hot dog sign in the window and I was just really in the mood for one. When I got up to the window it occurred to me that this place was more of a hot dog vendor than a wing place as there were dozens of Vienna Beef signs littering the counters and walls. I was completely unfamiliar with the term Chicago Dog, didn't even realize the city was known for anything beside their wind and deep dish pizza, but according to a poster on the wall I was in for something special.

I've never really been a big fan of putting all that much on a hot dog, I'm pretty much just a mustard kind of guy, though I have had a decent slaw dog or two here in Georgia. So the idea of getting one of these insane looking Chicago dogs worried me a bit, but I'm always up for a challenge and if that's what they're known for then I was going to try one (I mean why order breaded shrimp at a fancy seafood place when you can get something better, ya know.)

So I bellied up to the counter and decided on one Chicago Dog with the works ("drug through the garden" as I would soon know it) and a Maxwell Street Polish also with the works. When I got back to work and opened up the container I saw a daunting task ahead of me, but I dug in and soon was in love with these hot dogs.


Besides the million and one poster and laminated flyers advertising the entirety of the Vienna Beef product line, the place is pretty unassuming. The owners are proud of their little place; you can tell by the way they've posted their perfect score on the restaurant cleanliness and health form right in the front window. They also have it listed on the menu that they happily served Chicago for 16 years before relocating to Georgia. There aren't many places to sit and I couldn't imagine eating in, though I have seen people do it in the last two weeks, but what do you really need out of a hot dog place anyways right? The menu is also pretty basic, but once again we aren't talking fancy schmancy dining here, it's a hot dog place. Pretty much your choices are two or three variations on either the classic Vienna Beef dog or polish sausage, an Italian Beef sandwich, a surprising variety of fried fish (trout, whiting, tilapia, and catfish), and a few side items like fries, onion rings, slaw, and pizza puffs, not to mention your basic in hot wings.

Carrie and I decided to hit it last night for dinner (she hadn't been yet), so we got a bunch of food and brought it home...


I decided I was going to try the fried trout and she went with a Chicago Style dog and a Maxwell Street Polish. I assume the older couple working were also the owners as they're the only ones I've seen in the place, and the guy was doing both the cooking and taking orders when we arrived. He was nice and when he brought out the food he mentioned that there would probably be a few bones in the trout, as he had to de-bone it himself 'cause the supplier wanted too much for the de-boned stuff. Glad I got the warning because I hate bones in fish, but going in wary helped to not get one stuck in my throat. The fish was excellent, some of the better fried fish I've had in our area. It was crumb style breading and done to perfection. The fries were also good, crispy and hot as they're cooked to order. It was also served with a bun and a side of slaw.


The Polish sausage was also good, though not all that different from the regular hot dog in terms of taste. I'm used to sausages being s little plumper, but it wasn't bad. With the works it had mustard, sauteed onions and a couple sport peppers (pickled Serrano peppers.) It's served on a steamed poppy seed hot dog bun. Like I said, it was good, but nothing special, so I suppose I've been spoiled on German sausages.


The best thing by far though and more or less what this place is known for is it's Chicago Style hot dogs. So what is a Chicago Style Hot dog you ask? Well it's an all beef wiener on a steamed poppy seed bun with more condiments than you can shake a stick at. First comes the regular yellow mustard, followed by chopped raw onion, and greenest (practically neon) sweet relish I've ever seen, a dill pickle spear, tomato wedges, 2 sport peppers, and the coupe de grace, a sprinkling of celery salt. Now, don't get me wrong, though a lot of Chicagonians will protest that this is the only way to eat a hot dog, I won't say that this is for everybody. If you're not a fan of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy thrown in together with more consistencies that you can manage all at once than this isn't the style of hot dog for you. If there was ever a time to use the silly phrase: "There's a party in my mouth and everyone's invited", than this is it. These hot dogs are crunchy (onions, pickle, peppers), wet, meaty, soft, gritty (poppy seeds), sweet, savory, spicy, sour, and salty all at the same time, and if the dog is dressed correctly, in every bite.


I did a little research into Chicago Style Dogs after I got hooked on them and I found this awesome website that has pretty much everything you'd ever want to know on the subject called Hot Dog Chicago Style.com. I'm going to try and prepare these at home this weekend, and so far the only two things I'm having a hard time getting my hands on are pickled Serrano peppers and that weird neon relish, and even though I'm not about to break down and do this yet, you can find these online direct from Vienna Beef here.

Taste of Chicago has been pretty much packed and the phone was ringing off the hook at lunch time, so I hope the place does well, because if it doesn't I'd hate to have to try and buy that relish on the internet. I never pictured myself as the type of guy to buy relish over the internet, I mean that's crazy right?

Here we are back for the second installment of Peel Here for this last week in March. CJ over at Life in a Northern Town graciously sent in a couple scans of some of the stickers she's had tucked away for years, so I thought I'd take a minute to share them with everyone else out there in internet land. Tying in to this month's Scratch & Sniff theme, these stickers are of the smelly variety and were produced by a company called CTP (Creative Teaching Press), which markets products aimed at the teaching profession and still makes stickers to this day (though I didn't see any sniff stickers.) As far as Scratch & Sniff stickers go, I think CTP was surely one of the big three (including Trend and Mello Smello), and were most likely to be found and collected off of school homework and tests. I'm not sure if CTP had storefronts (like ABC School Supply warehouses sometimes do) or if they distributed their stickers through other chain stores like Hallmark or American Greetings, but I'd place my bets on school papers.

Anyway, here are the stickers. In this scan you can see a few varieties including Blueberry, Coconut, Fruit Punch, Spearmint, Vanilla, and Candy Apple.


What I dig about these stickers, over say Trend for example, is that each scent came in at lest three different styles, many of which were in variations of either cake/pie, ice cream, fruit, Popsicle bars, drinks, candy, or in some more rare cases, monsters and a weirdly long haired hippy looking lady (um, seriously, I’m getting to those.) The images are mostly anthropomorphic, though not quite as creepy as the Trend sticker designs, at least in my opinion.

After CJ sent the scans in I got the bug and managed to track down a bunch more CTP examples, so here you go…

Chocolate


Banana


Okay, seriously, what's up with these banana stickers? Do I really need to see a peeled banana in his boxers? This is a perfect example of what I find creepy about anthropomorphic imagery, I mean I don't think I would have associated a banana with eyes as having a penis if it weren't for the polka dotted boxers and his sly covered smile. Now to me the banana just seems like a pervert begging kids everywhere to scratch his crotch to see if it truly smells like a 'naner. CREEPY. I am, though, digging the hell out of Senior Banana on the end there...

Bubble Gum


This strip of stickers is kind of interesting. I'm glad they worked in a Double Bubble-esque individually wrapped piece of gum drawing, though the one of the machine looking down as it's bubblegum brains come shooting out of it's mouth is kind of weird.

Cherry


Gingerbread


Grape


Okay this grape strip just bummed me out. Why did the designers feel the need to draw a grape Popsicle with a bite taken out, which is obviously painful due to the very sad expression on the Popsicle's anthro-face? Jeez. Good work my grape-flavored ass.

Lemon


Licorice


Has anyone in the history of the world seen a more depressed whip of red licorice in their lives? I mean, freaking hell, were teachers trying to reward kids or get them used to the idea of cutting their arms for attention?

Lime


Unlike grape, this lime Popsicle must be masochistic or something because it sure looks darn happy that it's no longer whole.

Orange


For some reason I think Mr. Orange Moustache needs a bowler cap.

Peppermint


Dance Peppermint! Dance!!!

Pickle


Not to keep picking on the CTP artists and stuff, but that last sticker on the strip makes me want to vomit. I can't keep from trying to mingle the smells of dill pickle and sun tan lotion in my brain now.

Pineapple


On the one hand I really like how the artists differentiated between the male, female, and children pineapples in these stickers, but on the other it's kind of disturbing to think that in order for pineapples to reproduce, they have to cut off their spiny skin and slice themselves into rings. I suppose this falls on the creepy side of anthro-fruit.  Well, I guess the male pineapple looking up into his own opened fruit-skull to get a glimpse of his liquified fruit-brains is sort of weird too.

Raspberry


Root Beer


Everyone laughs at Deputy Sarsaparilla's high badge wearing ways, but one day they'll all be sorry when he grows a glass arm, grabs a gun and shoots them all.

Strawberry


Dude, that one strawberry looks all weary of the other one. Never trust an over enthusiastic strawberry.

So like I mentioned earlier, these stickers also came in the same scents, but with much trippier imagery like monsters and longhaired hippy chicks. I'm not sure if these came out around the same time, like 1981 or so, or if they were released sometime in the late 70's (which would be my best guess.)

Strawberry


Orange


Is it just me, or does the grass at the feet of the purple two-headed monster look like its shooting me the double bird?

Grape


Why is there a hidden 13 under that yellow monster? Why do I keep asking these pointless questions?

Gingerbread


Now that's what I'm talking about, gingerbread man making a move on long-haired hippy-dippy chick, and lefty getting scared as GB-man starts screaming "Don't you f***ing eat me!"

Bubblegum


Oh, I get it now; fluffy monster is wearing a 13 T-shirt. Stupid me.  It's heartening to know that the artists cared enough to know that he likes wearing that 13 shirt often.

Well this ends our month long excursion into the wondrously wonderful world of Scratch & Sniff stickers. In the annals of vintage sticker history, in the section on the 70's and 80's, you're sure to see that Scratch & Sniffs reigned supreme and were coveted like no other. When you get right down to it, the technology is truly amazing considering that some of these stickers are around 30 years old and though I didn't scratch, I could still sniff some of their fruity (or sometimes fried chicken-y) goodness. What else can hold a scent for 30 years? I mean it's just paper and glue.

Anyway, I have no freaking idea what sticker fun I'm going to bust out with next week, but rest assured, it'll be fun (sound of crickets chirping.) Thanks again to CJ for both sharing some sticker scans and prompting this extra post on CTP sniffys. Until next time, stay stuck.