RIP, Philippe.
Monthly Archives: June 2019
The Many Adventures of Johnny Dekker
Johnny Dekker was a private investigator who starred in 13 pulp paperbacks in the late 40s. Though the paperbacks were published in Britain, they were written in the “American style” and one thing that is obvious from looking at the covers is that Johnny was good with a gun and always had a femme fatale nearby.
Though he wasn’t credited on the covers, the Johnny Dekker novels were written by British comic book artist, Mick Anglo. Anglo was unique in that he not only wrote the paperbacks but he also drew the covers as well. Here, courtesy of the imagination of Mick Anglo, are some of the many adventures of Johnny Dekker. My personal favorite is Nuts To Nylon:
Artwork of the Day: Main Line (by Harry Barton)
by Harry Barton
Music Video of the Day: I Quit by Blotto (1983, directed by ????)
Just in time for Friday, today’s music video is all abut quitting your job. This is the video that asks, “If Nixon could do it, why not you?”
I previously wrote about Blotto last year, when I shared their music video for I Wanna Be A Lifeguard. Sadly, despite the success of Lifeguard, Blotto never really broke into the mainstream. They did, however, have a strong cult following in the Northeast, especially among college students who appreciated their humorous lyrics and DIY style. While this video never made it into the regular MTV rotation, it did show up on Canadian television.
One final note: at the time this video was released, Blotto was being managed by none other than actor Burt Ward, who was best known for playing Robin on the 60s Batman television show.
Enjoy!
Is LADY STREET FIGHTER The Worst Movie Ever Made? (American General 1981)
In all my years of watching movies, I’ve seen more than my share of stinkers. But nothing quite prepared me for the total ineptitude that is LADY STREET FIGHTER, starring the immortal Renee Harmon. This wretchedly made film features an incoherent script, horrific cinematography, murky sound, no direction, really bad acting, and an ersatz synth theme ripped off from Morricone’s THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY . Let’s put it this way… when Jody McCrea (Bonehead of the Beach Party series) takes your film’s best acting honors, you KNOW you’re in for trouble!!
This senseless excuse for a movie finds Renee out to avenge the death of her sister at the hands of a gang called Assassins Incorporated, or something like that. I’m really not too sure, as the convoluted plot isn’t well defined. The movie starts off promising for Grindhouse fans with a gruesome torture scene (including a…
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Artwork of the Day: Morals Squad (by Robert Maguire)
by Robert Maguire
Music Video of the Day: Mother 93 by Danzig (1993, directed by ????)
“Al Gore wanted to tell people what they could listen to and what they couldn’t…it was basically coming down to the idea that he wouldn’t let anybody record any music that he didn’t think you should be doing. There was going to be an organization that would tell you what you could and couldn’t record. And certainly if you couldn’t record it, you couldn’t put it out. It was really fascist.”
— Glenn Danzig, on the inspiration for Mother
There’s been a lot of debate about what Glenn Danzig is singing about in Mother. Some people think that the song is supposed to be pro-Satanist, even though Danzig himself has said that he’s not a Satanist and is merely interested in the occult. Others think that the song is sung from the point of view of a teenager who is warning his parents that he has decided to reject their values and embrace his evil side.
More likely, the song is exactly what Danzig has often said it is. It was a song written to protest the 80s push by Tipper Gore’s Parents Music Resource Center to have the government step in and regulate music. The “mother” that Danzig is singing to was probably Tipper herself.
The above video was the second one for Mother, hence why it’s called Mother ’93. It features live footage of the band performing at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater in California. At around the same time this video was in rotation on MTV, Glenn Danzig was invited to audition for the role of Wolverine in one of the early attempts to make an X-Men film. Danzig, who had the right look for the role, had to turn down the opportunity due to scheduling conflicts.
This video also inspired a classic line from Beavis and Butt-Head: “That little dance isn’t very cool.”
Enjoy!
ATC Week : “All-Time Comics : Blind Justice” #2
And so here, at the end, it all comes together : everything Josh and Samuel Bayer have been aiming for throughout the course of the first “season” of their sprawling, multi-faceted project “clicks” into place with All-Time Comics : Blind Justice #2. Is it flawless? No. The highs and lows aren’t so much smoothed out as they are — assigned to their proper positions. And the end result is, finally, a comic that filters “Bronze Age” sensibilities through a modern “alt-comics” lens, and vice-versa — simultaneously.
It’s a tough balancing act, to be sure, but Josh B. has a much more firm handle on his character (who I still don’t think is blind) this time out, and so when he sends him out of Optic City and into the hills to track down his villainous prey, readers feel as our protagonist does : a stranger in an even stranger land…
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ATC Week : “All-Time Comics : Crime Destroyer” #2
Andrew Buck pulls out all the stops to deliver an eyeball-melting cover for All-Time Comics : Crime Destroyer #2, the fifth (I know, at this point things are getting a bit confusing) installment in the first “season” of Josh and Samuel Bayer’s resurrection of “Bronze Age” aesthetics through a post-modern (or, if you prefer Kim O’Connor’s designation for many of the creators involved, “Post-Dumb”) lens, and certainly the ultra-violence in depicts is thematically in line with the book’s contents — but the comic itself is relatively free of the gruesome and gory, truth be told. You should not, however, take that to mean the story isn’t kinda, well, sick.
As was the case with All-Time Comics : Atlas #1, the issues that find Benjamin Marra in the creative driver’s seat (he pencilled and inked this one, and co-wrote it with Josh Bayer) are decidedly more vicious and morally…
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ATC Week : “All-Time Comics : Blind Justice” #1
I’m just gonna call it : Victor Martinez’s cover for All-Time Comics : Blind Justice #1 (the fourth release in this Josh and Samuel Bayer-helmed project) is the coolest thing to date about this entire enterprise. Rendered in a style highly reminiscent of old-school airbrushing (hell, it may even be a piece of old-school airbrushing for all I know), it’s atmospheric, evocative, and just plain bad-ass.
Too bad the interior contents can’t live up to the dramatic standard it sets.
Not that it’s a bad comic, mind you — more just another very mixed bag from a series that excels at creating them. The premise is agreeably absurd : a patient at an Optic City psychiatric facility who appears to be more or less comatose is actually the bandaged, club-wielding vigilante known as Blind Justice (or maybe it’s simply “Justice,” since that’s what most folks seem to call him…
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Through the Shattered Lens 