Monthly Archives: January 2025

January 18, 2025 · 12:01 am

AVENGERS 114-135 (1973-1975)

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Marvel’s Avengers series – issues 114-135. 

AVENGERS Vol 1 #114 (August 1973)

Title: The Night of the Swordsman

Avengers Roster: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, the Vision, Mantis, the Swordsman

Villain: Lion-God

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Synopsis: The villainous Swordsman rejoins the Avengers with a pardon and alongside his mysterious romantic partner Mantis, making her very first full appearance. Mantis is part Vietnamese and part unknown at this point.

The mysteries surrounding this superheroine will be resolved in this story arc that would probably be as famous as The Dark Phoenix Saga over at The X-Men if Marvel hadn’t pointlessly retconned so much of it decades later. Thanos, Kang, Loki, Ultron and Dormammu are among the villains. Continue reading →

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January 17, 2025 · 5:29 am

BRUCE CAMPBELL AND SAM RAIMI: 1970s and 1980s SHORT FILMS – CLEVELAND SMITH AND MORE

Here at Balladeer’s Blog I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m an enormous fan of Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel, Josh Becker, Robert Tapert and all the rest of the Michigan gang who hit the jackpot with the original The Evil Dead (1981, 1983). Ever since then they’ve starred in, written, and directed countless other movies and television projects like Hercules the Legendary Journeys, Spider-Man, Adventures of Brisco County Jr, you name it. 

      Even before The Evil Dead, the gang had been making amateur Super-8 short films emphasizing the kind of cornball, slapstick humor you’d expect of creative teens goofing around with their very first movie productions.  Like many fans I first caught glimpses of the shorts in the Sam Raimi episode of The Incredibly Strange Film Show which also featured Within the Woods, the Evil Dead proof of concept short.

CLEVELAND SMITH: BOUNTY HUNTER (1982) – This last of the Michigan Mafia’s short films is among the most accessible and enjoyable. I review the older ones below. As the title indicates, this 9-minute flick was one of the earliest Raiders of the Lost Ark parodies ever made.

The talent of those involved triumphed over the tiny budget and lame special effects as Bruce Campbell portrayed the mustachioed Cleveland Smith, heroic man of action. This short opens in mock-Republic Serial fashion, pretending this is Chapter 36 of Smith’s adventures.

Cleveland Smith: Bounty Hunter plays like a live-action Warner Brothers or Woody Woodpecker cartoon and is a fun watch on that level. The Michigan gang’s infectious enthusiasm carries the comedy short, helped by the “cool” factor of knowing what the gang members went on to achieve in the years ahead.   

Sam Raimi played a Nazi villain and Evil Dead costar Cheryl Guttridge played Sally, Cleveland Smith’s pith-helmeted girlfriend. Scott Spiegel, Ted Raimi, Robert “Mr. Lucy Lawless” Tapert and Bridget Hoffman portrayed the native jungle tribe like the one in the Indiana Jones movie. Continue reading →

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January 16, 2025 · 7:23 am

NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOON ROUNDUP: JAN SIXTEENTH

From Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog it’s another current events roundup from an America where career criminal Joe Biden, who was knocked out of the presidential race by Trump after ONE debate, likes to pretend he could have won the election. Hilarious! Biden, you figuratively got knocked out in the 1st round of the playoffs and crawled away. You could never have won the election.

PINSKER ON HOW JOE BIDEN’S CORRUPTION WEAKENED THE PRESIDENCY. 

GAVIN NEWSOME, ELIZABETH WARREN AND OTHER DEMOCRATS CALLED OUT FOR TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO DONATE FOR THE CA FIRES THROUGH THE DEMOCRATS’ SCANDALOUS ACTBLUE. A reasonable person might wonder if some of the donations might be skimmed for The Party under the guise of “processing the donations.” More HERE. 

ONE OF THE COLORADO APARTMENT COMPLEXES TAKEN OVER BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT GANGS ORDERED SHUT OVER “IMMINENT THREAT”. Remember when Democrats were pretending that gang activity in those complexes wasn’t really happening? Their usual claims that “Trump is lying” were wrong again and innocent people paid the price.

ARAB OFFICIALS SAY TRUMP’S TEAM DID MORE FOR A CEASE FIRE DEAL IN ONE MEETING THAN BIDEN DID IN A YEAR. Plus, Biden humiliated at the presser HERE.

GALLUP POLL: JOE BIDEN IS THE SECOND-WORST PRESIDENT IN HISTORY. Only Nixon was considered worse in the poll.

NAPOLITAN POLL: SEVENTY-THREE PERCENT SAY AMERICA BECAME LESS SAFE UNDER THE BIDEN REGIME. But hey, Joe got plenty of graft money. 

GUTHRIE BLASTS JOE BIDEN FOR RUINING ONE OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S FIRST TERM HEALTHCARE MEASURES. Trump was the greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime. Continue reading →

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January 15, 2025 · 8:00 pm

MURPH MERCHANDISE: LIZARD PLANET’S TERRIFIC ITEMS

Fellow blogger Dawn at LizardPlanet has been promoting the fun and benefits of lizards as pets for years now. Her charismatic spokesmodel Murph (at left) convinced me long ago that such pet ownership is criminally underrated. 

Murph has a face you can’t resist and reading his Mom’s posts over the years has been a great primer in the care and feeding of little lizards in particular! Murph’s a beardie and I’ve been calling him Dawn’s blog’s Goodwill Ambassador to the world for years now.

I was happy when Lizard Planet started selling Murph Merchandise comparatively recently. We got Murph calendars for different rooms but if calendars aren’t your thing there are magnets, mugs, hoodies, cards, throw pillows, shopping totes and more! 

It’s called the Meta-MURPH-osis and it’s something you’ll want to be a part of! Adults and kids will love the merchandise! On the practical side the site also offers all kinds of supplies for lizard ownership. Click HERE for their Zazzle store. Continue reading →

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January 15, 2025 · 3:47 am

CHINESE MYTHOLOGY: YI, THE DIVINE ARCHER

 I.WHAT’S UP WITH YI?  – Yi the Divine Archer from Chinese mythology deserves to be remembered in one breath with some of the other great heroes and monster slayers from belief systems around the world. Most people are only familiar with his feat of shooting down multiple suns that appeared in the sky one day, but this article will provide a light- hearted look at all of his fantastic adventures.

NOTE: Some readers may find my inserted jokes to be of an adult nature. Continue reading →

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January 14, 2025 · 2:52 pm

JAN FOURTEENTH ROUNDUP OF NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS

From Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog it’s another current events roundup.

BIDEN REGIME’S FBI DIRECTOR CHRIS WRAY ADMITS THAT CHINA HAS PENETRATED AMERICA’S CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AS HE RESIGNS. Further evidence that buying Joe Biden long ago was the best investment China’s government ever made. Joe was owned by China just like he was accused of for years. But hey, Joe Biden’s been pronounced too mentally unfit to stand trial, so he’s still in a position to pardon who knows who else before the 20th.

LENARD MCKELVEY RIGHTFULLY CALLS THE COUTROOM PERSECUTION OF PRESIDENT TRUMP “PURE POLITICAL THEATER.” The Biden Regime’s Banana Republic atrocity. PLUS, THE VOTERS RENDERED THE TRUE VERDICT BACK IN NOVEMBER BY REELECTING TRUMP.

FIREFIGHTERS’ UNION PRESIDENT SAYS LOS ANGELES HAS BEEN NEGLECTED BY ITS LEADERS. To say the least.

DONALD TRUMP, NELSON MANDELA, GANDHI, LECH WALESA – “CONVICTED FELONS” ACCORDING TO CORRUPT REGIMES, BUT HEROES TO THE REST OF US. And it’s sure to be overturned on appeal, anyway, but anti-Trump fascists played the short game again. 

DEMOCRAT FASCISTS FURTHER TRUMP’S MARTYRDOM IN PURSUIT OF A TALKING POINT THAT WILL ULTIMATELY GET OVERTURNED ANYWAY. (Just like all the frantic “Trump colluded with Russia” nonsense and “Trump was running a nuclear program at Mar-a-Lago” and all the other anti-Trump fables that have been spun out of whole cloth.) 

CLEARLY PARTISAN JUDGE AND JURY MADE SURE TRUMP IS THE NEW NELSON MANDELA, MAHATMA GANDHI AND LECH WALESA, ALL OF WHOM WERE ALSO “CONVICTED FELONS” (LMAO) VIA THEIR COUNTRY’S CORRUPT AND SLANTED LEGAL SYSTEMS.  Continue reading →

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January 14, 2025 · 1:58 am

NEW COLLEGE OF FLORIDA: COOL NAMED SPORTS TEAM

Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at another sports team name that is far outside the overused Eagles, Tigers, Bulldogs and Wildcats.

NEW COLLEGE OF FLORIDA Continue reading →

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January 13, 2025 · 6:49 pm

NBC OPERA THEATRE (1949-1964) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

NBC OPERA THEATRE (1949-1964) – Believe it or not, television networks used to regularly broadcast presentations of operas. Gradually, declining public interest drove operas off the networks and onto educational television. 

The NBC Network actually funded an entire opera company to produce classic AND new operas from 1949-1964. That opera company toured the country breaking in their productions before being aired on the network, then sometimes doing a run on Broadway. 

The NBC Opera mounted America’s very first made-for-television opera – the Christmas-themed Amahl and the Night Visitors – and broadcast it on Christmas Eve 1951. The one-act work filled a one-hour time slot with roughly five minutes of commercials.  Continue reading →

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January 13, 2025 · 12:01 am

NEWS, MEMES AND POLITICAL CARTOONS ROUNDUP: JAN THIRTEENTH

It’s time for another current events roundup from Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog.

Every time it seems that the zealots who still call themselves Democrats have sunk as low as they possibly could, they prove they are far worse than the rest of us thought. FIRST, DEMOCRATS ARE SO INSANE THEY’RE ACTUALLY BLAMING THE CALIFORNIA FIRES ON TRUMP, EVEN THOUGH HE DOESN’T RETURN TO THE PRESIDENCY UNTIL JANUARY TWENTIETH. More HERE.

        SECOND, DEMOCRATS ARE SUCH REPULSIVE, HYPOCRITICAL DEMAGOGUES THAT WHILE EXPLOITING THE FIRES POLITICALLY ALL DAY EVERY DAY BY PRETENDING CLIMATE CHANGE IS TO BLAME RATHER THAN DEMOCRAT MISMANAGEMENT, THEY SIMULTANEOUSLY CLAIM ANYONE WHO CRITICIZES CALIFORNIA’S DEMOCRAT ADMINISTRATION IS “PLAYING POLITICS.”

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS IN OFFICE IGNORED TRUMP’S WARNINGS WHEN HE WAS PRESIDENT ABOUT HOW THEIR FAILURES WERE SETTING THE STAGE FOR MAMMOTH WILDFIRES. More HERE. And HERE. As always with anti-Trump loons they pretended anything Trump said MUST be wrong. Now they insanely try blaming him for them ignoring his sage advice. The Democrats at the AP got in on the act HERE.

CALLOUS AND UNCARING CAREER CRIMINAL JOE BIDEN LAUGHS AND TALKS ABOUT BECOMING A GREAT-GRANDFATHER WHEN HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ADDRESSING THE CALIFORNIA FIRES. More HERE. It’s been said that Joe Biden is nothing but a large clump of bacteria sculpted into human form. Joe is filth.

BIDEN REGIME TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THE FIRE DISTRACTION TO GRANT AMNESTY TO EIGHT HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND ILLEGALS. More HERE. 

WITH THE FIRES ALREADY HAVING RAGED FOR DAYS, CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT OFFICE HOLDERS STILL WASTED TIME ON THEIR ABSURD SPECIAL SESSION ABOUT “TRUMP-PROOFING” THE STATE. How about looking into fireproofing or fire management instead? Continue reading →

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January 12, 2025 · 6:14 pm

CHARLEMAGNE: ROLAND BATTLES MANDRICARDO

These are the legends about Charlemagne and his Paladins, not the actual history, so there will be dragons, monsters and magic. 

FOR MY FIRST CHAPTER ON CHARLEMAGNE’S PALADINS CLICK HERE.

ROLAND BATTLES MANDRICARDO – In our previous installment Charlemagne’s Paladin named Roland saved Princess Isabella of Galicia from the Moroccan corsairs who were holding her for ransom.

Now, Roland and Isabella were riding northward to link up with Emperor Charlemagne’s main army as they fought the ongoing Saracen invasion. As always, the Paladin wielded his sword Durindana.

At length they approached a town where there was much consternation. Several soldiers were making their way through the streets but at this distance Roland could not make out if they were friend or foe.

Our hero had Isabella slip down from their horse and hide behind a tree while Roland met with the approaching soldiers to determine their intentions. He saw that they were conducting a prisoner, bound hand and foot.

Finally, Roland could make out the ensigns of the troops – they were men of the Count Anselm, head of the treacherous House Maganza. That House was ever ready to secretly ally themselves with every foe of Emperor Charlemagne. Continue reading →

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