The Spirit Of 76!

I've been immersing myself in all things Spirit this year and as a consequence I chanced upon a reasonably priced copy of The Overstreet Price Guide for 1976 which features an outstanding image of the Spirit with Commissioner Dolan, his daughter Ellen and the Spirit's trusty assistant Ebony White decked out as the patriotic trio in Archibald Willard's The Spirit of 76 first displayed at a centennial in 1876. 

This image has been used across the years in advertising. It's also been appropriated by some comic book companies as well.  

Norman Rockwell created his own version of the image as one of his many Boy Scout projects. 

Jack Davis created a raucous image for the movie Kelly's Heroes. It appeared on the cover of the soundtrack and on posters as well. 

Disney made thorough use of the image starting way back in 1936. The war-supporting cover from 1945 was utterly transformed by Gladstone when that image was reprinted. 

(Joe Romita)

The Spirit returned to The Overstreet Price Guide with the forty-fifth edition in 2015. He was rendered this time by Dave Johnson. 

I have no particular interest in this one, but if I found it nice and cheap one never knows. 

On this Fourth of July it's crucial that Americans realize what makes this country a value for the world  -- the offer to all peoples of a chance to be free. I see that value slipping away in the short term, and I don't expect we'll ever be what we were or imagined ourselves to be. But we will be better in time. 

Rip Off

The Cinema Of Narnia!

After the pioneering blockbuster success of The Lord of the Rings, studios were itching for a piece of the epic fantasy pie. One property that immediately came to the mind of any fan of Tolkien was the tale of Narnia by his friend and colleague C.S. Lewis. In 2005 we got The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from Disney. What annoys me more than a little is that in the expansive supplemental documentaries and such not a single person indicates the success of the Peter Jackson movies as the impetus for this movie. What's more they act like filming in New Zealand was difficult but par for the course. It's a small thing, but it annoyed me. 

That said, I really enjoy The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as directed by Andrew Adamson. It's at once true to the books and still manages to give the viewer a splendid fantasy epic with more actual violence than I'm sure Lewis would've been comfortable showcasing. In books fights can seem ephemeral whereas the lead up to them is crucial. In film we got to see it and we do here. Peter (William Mosely), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmond (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley) are on hand to face off against the White Witch. I cannot take my eyes of Swinton in this role, in which she does what many a movie villain does, and that's steal the show. As good as the animated Aslan is with voice by Liam Neeson no less, this becomes Swinton's movie from the moment she slides up in her demon sleigh. The only real visual competitions she has are those magnificent centaurs who battle on the side of good. This is a heart-warming movie with a message, but it's a pretty decent actioner as well. 

The same crew go at it again in the sequel Prince Caspian. Ben Barnes plays the title role of the displaced prince of Narnia who flees for his life when he becomes superfluous to the tyrant Miraz, leader of the Telmarines, when his actual son is born. This one is pretty dang violent for a movie of this kind. Again, the target audience are those Tolkien fans looking for something between hits of Jackson epics. Our original four are back and after years as kings and queens in Narnia they come with kills. Despite youthful bodies they seem to have retained all the muscle memory they had in Narnia as adults. Peter Dinklage is on hand as Trumpkin the dwarf who seeks the lost kings and queens but doubts their ability to help. Warwick Davis is Nikabrik, a dwarf who has a hard time letting go of the past. Eddie Izzard gives voice to Reepicheep, the mouse with a sword. All the parts are here and they work well, but again this movie owes much of his structure and even some key scenes to the Rings movies. I'm not complaining, but I just wish they'd own it. 

The series gets kicked to the curb by Disney before the third in this trilogy hits the screen. It's up to 20th Century Fox to step in to bring us The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The scope seems smaller for this one than the previous films. It necessarily reminds me of all those Sinbad movies which were great B movie fun, but this is a flicker which has an A movie pedigree. Edmond and Lucy return to Narnia and join Caspian aboard the Dawn Treader to find seven lost lords who fled Narnia when the Telmarines invaded so many years before. They are joined on his adventure by their cousin Eusace (Will Poulter, who does a great job) and Simon Pegg steps in to voice Reepicheep. This one gets a new director in Michale Apted and a screenplay which diverges from the original story in several ways. Some magical hoodoo is added about seven swords and a curse which is attacking all of Narnia if left unchecked. The bits and bobs are mostly here, but the overarching quest for something greater than themselves gets actively muddled. I'm glad this one got made, but I wish it had been a wee bit better. 

And that wraps up my two-month long overview of The Chronicles of Narnia. It's been a treat diving into the Lewis mythology again after decades away from the books and years away from the films. The Narnian books are advertised as children's classics and they are, but there's plenty of richness for any adult to savor in these admittedly somewhat overly reverent yarns. 

Rip Off

Half Human But All Monster!

I've long wanted to see one of Toho's oldest monster movies, a black and white flicker from 1955 called Half Human. This is the first fantasy movie Ishiro Honda made after the success of Godzilla, and I've always wondered what it must be like. The movie was adapted to Western screens in 1957 with John Carradine and Morris Ankrum among a few others supplying a talky frame for the action shot by Honda. Toho's original clocks in at over ninety minutes and the adaptation trims at least thirty minutes off that. It's not ineffective as monster movies go, but it's not the movie that Honda and others made for Japanese audiences. 

In the original we follow the travails of an assembly of students. Some of their number go missing on a ski outing and turn up dead while a third remains missing. Giant footprints in the snow and strange hair on a nail are the only clues. This mystery takes up the first thirty minutes or so of the movie and it's what mostly got cut out for U.S. audiences. When spring comes, an expedition goes to look for the missing man and also perhaps the creature who might be responsible. A carnival operator gets wind of this and mounts his own trip following the students now led by a respected scientist. There is an encounter where the Snowman comes into the camp and is chased out by our hero. He runs into the carnival camp and is beat up and left for dead. He's found by a beautiful girl and taken to her village which is made up of isolated people of low caste. There is lots of turmoil but eventually we see the creature's gentle nature before the carnival crew find him and all hell breaks loose. When a young creature is killed the "snowman" gets well and truly "abominable".

Now the English-language version takes this story, strips out most of the beginning mystery and jumps right into the antics following the creature's first appearance on screen invading the student camp. John Carradine waxes on with actually a pretty decently done narration which takes the place of all of the dialogue from the original. There is one scene shift in the Carradine portions of the movie and that is to head down to the morgue where Morris Ankrum is doing an autopsy on the body of the child creature. So Carradine's listeners have absolute proof of the "Abominable Snowman's " existence right there on the table. (I think Toho actually sent the suit of the small creature to America for these shots.)

Now for the controversy. The reason I cannot buy a copy of the original Japanese version of Half Human is the presence of the "Burakamin". This is what remains of a low caste society in Japan made up of people who did jobs deemed unworthy for filthy somehow. These folks were looked down upon and it's the notion that this bigoted notion informs the film in regard to the villagers that keeps Toho from making it available for home viewing. It's not at all unlike what Disney has decided to do in regard to Song of the South, a movie adapting Uncle Remus stories to the screen., Having now finally seen the movie, I think releasing the movie with provisos would be fine. The critique seems a bit overblown. Whatever poor decisions were made in 1955, they can be well left in the past. 

I'd love to have a copy of Half Human, but I'll settle now for just getting to see it. If you'd like to see the movie, then go to this link for the original Japanese version and this link for the Westernized Carradine version. Thanks to the Internet Archive for making these rarities available. 

 Rip Off

Mickey And The Phantom Blot!

My favorite Disney villain is without question The Phantom Blot. The enigmatic Blot is the very essence of mystery, a mere shape of a character, an animated blackness. The simple elegance of the design is at once compelling and incredibly effective on a comics page. The Blot stands out by fading into the background, ideal for a thieving menace with an ego. 

The Phantom Blot first appears in the Mickey Mouse comic strip beginning on May 22nd, 1939 and the story ran until September 9th, 1939. So for the entire summer of that year Mickey fans were treated to one of the Mouse's best mysteries and my favorite Disney villain. There is something frightening about how Floyd Gottredson drew the Phantom Blot, despite the character being no more than what the name suggests, a black shape. 

The plot of the story was lifted from a venerable source -- Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. In particular it is a story very similar in many respects to "The Six Napoleons". Mickey is called in by Chief O'Hara to assist with a crimewave in which only a particular brand of camera is being stolen. The cameras are broken open and left behind and that seems to be all the mysterious Phantom Blot wants. Mickey gets on the case and is captured by the Blot several times and subjected to some wild Rube Goldberg style methods to kill him off. But of course, he outwits the trap and uses disguises to get to the bottom of the mystery. The story ends with a wild chase and the Blot is even unmasked, though no name is  provided. 

The Phantom Blot returns in the May 1964 issue of Walt Disney Comics and Stories for a four-part tale. I've never read this yarn but it reintroduced the character and must have done quite well despite only rating a single cover of the four. Gold Key and Disney saw fit to revive the character in his own comic book. And that's main focus of today's post. 

The Phantom Blot gets his own comic book, a rarity for a villain. In the debut issue fear of the Blot, who is in jail, causes Mickey to hypnotize Goofy into becoming a decoy Blot when the Mysterious Mr. X reveals his plan to enlist the imprisoned Blot in his world-conquering schemes. The real Phantom Blot doesn't show up until half-way through the story. 

The Blot goes out West to become the greatest of the mounted outlaws and is confronted by Mickey and Gyro Gearloose as well as Goofy. Goofy gets hold of some of Gyro's secret formula and drinks it by mistake and becomes Super-Goof for the very first time.  Remember when Wolverine debuted in the Hulk? It's like that but funnier. 

The Beagle Boys look up to the Phantom Blot and want to join him in his lootings. So, they team up and it takes all that Mickey can do to keep them from pillaging Uncle Scrooge's riches. He has the help of Donald Duck this time as well as a returning Gyro Gearloose. 

The Phantom Blot woos Madam Mim and gets her to use her magic to whisk him in and out of jail which thoroughly befuddles Mickey and Chief O'Hara. But it's all the Blot can do to keep Mim on the chain as he steals, something she's not keen on. 

Mickey and Donald travel to Tasbah and find that the Phantom Blot is up to no good. It's even more dangerous for our heroes when it turns out the Blot has kidnapped the Maharaja and is pretending to be him to gain access to the incredible wealth of Tasbah. It's all Mickey can do to outwit the Blot this time. 

In the penultimate issue the Phantom Blot turns pirate and enlists the Beagle Boys to be his crew. Harvesting a special wood from an isolated island he builds a flying ship which can speed across the ocean. Uncle Scrooge's ship carrying his wealth comes under direct attack as Mickey and Donald try to help. 

In the seventh and final issue the Phantom Blot uses a heinous liquid to make blots of others as well as himself making it difficult to catch him. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and even Pluto are enlisted by the F.I.B. (Federal Intrigue Bureau) and trained as agents and given special equipment to help stop the Blot from stealing diamonds from King Max E. Mouse. 

The Phantom Blot stories by Paul Murray are tremendous fun. He might not have the chops of  Gottfredson, but he spins a fast-paced adventure yarn full of fun and frolic. I've long wanted to read the Phantom Blot stories and now I have. They weren't exactly what I expected, but each issue offers up its own special surprises. 

Rip Off

Doctor Syn - The Movies!

One of my all-time favorite movies is Dr. Syn alias the Scarecrow.  The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh is the title given to the production when was aired three one-hour episodes on American television. This movie starring Patrick McGoohan in the days after he was a secret agent but before he became a prisoner is a rousing adventure yarn which delighted me as a youngster on The Wonderful World of Disney. The Scarecrow as portrayed by McGoohan actually frightened me and still gives me goosebumps. 

Before the days of VHS and DVD, the way to "own" a film was to buy the novel adaptation and I snapped up the one by Vic Crume for the Disney story. It goes to show how much they changed from Russell Thorndyke's novel that there even needed to be a novel adaptation. The original source for the story wasn't in fact a later Thorndyke novel but a variation of it by William Buchannan. I've never read this version. The gem pictured above is hidden somewhere in the many boxes of books in this house. I despair finding it really, save by accident. 

The story was also adapted into comic book form by Gold Key Comics. They also produced two additional issues with fresh stories. The Scarecrow is given more of a role similar to the novel in this movie and is more of the dashing rogue in the Robin Hood tradition. 

Hammer's 1962 Night Creatures (alternately title Captain Clegg) adapts Thorndyke's original novel (or possibly an earlier film I'll discuss in a moment). 

Hammer was beat out by Disney for rights to the name, but they did a pretty decent job of translating the events of the first novel to the screen. I was underwhelmed by this one when I first saw it, as it's a weaker effort than the classic Disney adaptation, but it is truer to the source material, even though Doctor Syn cannot be called that but is referred to as "Doctor Bliss". He is played rather energetically if more sanely by Peter Cushing. 

The very first adaptation called simply Dr. Syn starring George Arliss from 1937.  It's possible this film served as the inspiration for the later Hammer effort because there are scenes the two share which are not in the novel. Syn is played in this movie by George Arliss, a beloved actor who was approaching seventy. His relative fragility does hurt the movie at times, but overall, he's a worthy if somewhat stiff Syn. The movie underplays Syn's seeming madness and gives the viewer a typically more upbeat ending than does the novel. 

 NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

Rip Off

Doctor Syn - The Novels!

Doctor Syn: A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh by Russell Thorndike is a book that is the original source for the great Disney production which attracted me to the character The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh so many decades ago. The actual true source of the Disney feature was an adaptation of the original by the author Richard Buchanan under the title Christopher Syn. I'll have more on the movie adaptations tomorrow. 

What we have in this 1915 novel is a character which is rather unlike the open and rather friendly Disney character who operates with cleverness and zeal to care for the poor people of Romney Marsh by using authority as a parson and his charisma as a bandit called The Scarecrow to protect them from oppression. The Doctor Syn of this story is a wild and spooky character who is respected by his flock but also somewhat frightened by him as he is wont to do wild things which beggar description.

When British soldier appear on the scene to rein in smuggling in the area it brings about a crisis as they bring along a strange man who can identify a presumably dead pirate named Clegg, a pirate who was famously hanged some years before. Syn, we discover has some connection to Clegg and while the mystery isn't all that deep, the discovery of the truth unfolds leisurely though out the tale.

There are some great characters in the story such as Mipps, stout-hearted and charming coffin maker who has more than a few secrets. Imogene, a barmaid who herself might have connections to the old pirate Clegg. And much of the tale is told from the perspective of Jerry Jerk, a young boy who loathes his schoolmaster Rash and daydreams of becoming a hangman so he can have the teacher dangling from the end of his rope. Young master Jerk is a Huckleberry Finn type of boy who is filled with raucous thoughts of violence but is armed with a no-nonsense attitude which makes him a sturdy ally for many.

On many levels this is a weird and violent yarn with secrets which lurk behind the think wooden walls of the small village which is often haunted by spooks who ride across the marsh in the dark of night. There's a neat creepiness to the story, but also a zany misdirection as it never seems to go where you imagine it should as attention is paid first to one character then another.

This is the first and also the last of the Syn novels. Many prequels were written some years later beginning in 1935 (twenty years after the original) by Thorndike. They are:

Doctor Syn on the High Seas (1935)

Doctor Syn Returns (1935)

Further Adventures of Doctor Syn (1936)

Courageous Exploits of Doctor Syn (1938)

Amazing Quest of Doctor Syn (1939)

Shadow of Doctor Syn (1944)

Some time I need to get hold of them and check them out, if the writing is anywhere nearly as good as it is in this one. But I fear they are not. 

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

Rip Off

The British Are Coming!

"The British are coming! The British are coming!" Most American learn that in grade school in their earliest lessons about the American Revolution. We listen to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" and that cements the myth. Most likely Revere didn't say that, but what the heck, it's a good story. (At least from the Amercian perspective.) And good stories are what's up here at the Dojo this January, and they all are either created by Brits or are set in Britain in some way. I know several of my regular readers are British and I expect to be taken to task for getting some things wrong. Help a meager colonial out fellows when you can. This first month of 2023 the British are here. 

Below are some of the wonders I hope to cover during this frosty month. 

Miracleman is the recreation which was launched (like V for Vendetta) in the pages of Dez Skinn's Warrior magazine in the early 80'a. This is Moore's quite vivid and compelling reimagining of the characters Marvel Man and his extended family which was itself a British take on the classic Fawcett Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family developed when the latter ceased to be published but the British audience wanted more. These comics come with "Mature Content" labels for good reason. This features the artwork of great talents like Garry Leach and Alan Davis among others. 

British comics don't come much tougher than Judge Dredd, the breakout star of 2000AD. I'm reading Dredd's earliest yarns, and I hope to rewatch the two Dredd movies. They are very different as most already know.  One is really good, and one is really not. 

Another dark character is Night Raven. Created by Steve Parkhouse and David Lloyd, this enemy of organized crime serves quite well as a precursor of sorts to the later V for Vendetta. I not only have the collected comic vignettes, but here are copious text stories featuring this pulp-inspired enemy of evil. 

Marvel had a unit in Britian knocking out comics on a weekly basis, and in an attempt to add some specific new British content to the mix the word went down to create Captain Britain. I've always had a soft spot for the vintage, red-costumed Britian and the stories written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Herb Trimpe have a zest which is undeniable. 

The original British hero from Marvel was the Black Knight by Stan Lee and Joe Maneely. I adore these stories, gems of 50's storytelling from those halcyon Atlas days before the Marvel Age descended upon us all. The Black Knight is a part of the Marvel mythos and has even shown up in recent movies. I hope to see much more of him there. 

Supermarionation is a mouthful, but it describes the exceedingly strange but exceedingly entertaining work of Gerry Anderson and his team who take puppets and make heroes out of them. There's a delightful goofiness to these 60's and 70's efforts which give them charm which exceeds their narrative limitations. I hope to review all five of the core series in order and a few movies besides. 

And I want to close out the month of January with a look at Night Raven, a British pulp hero. Night Raven had some dandy comic adventures drawn by David Lloyd and later by John Bolton. But the majority of Night Raven adventures, grim and dark are actually pulp stories by the likes of Jamie Delano and even Alan Moore. 

All this and whatever else I can shove in is coming in January. Hang on to your MopTops amigos as it's British Invasion month at the Dojo! 

Rip Off