THE FEATHER AND FATHER GANG (1976-1977) – Happy Father’s Day, gentlemen! Back on Mother’s Day I reviewed Momma the Detective, so in that spirit here is a look at the short-lived detective series The Feather and Father Gang.
This program starred Stefanie Powers as attorney Toni “Feather” Danton and Harold Gould as Harry Danton, her charming, roguish conman father. Trying to keep her rascally dad on the straight and narrow, Feather hired him as a private investigator for her law firm.
In the tradition of Perry Mason and Matlock, Feather’s clients were always victims of frame jobs or bad circumstances, so her incorrigible father Harry inevitably resorted to extra-legal methods of clearing them. Papa Danton recruited some of his old conmen pals to help him in his efforts and dubbed the joint venture “the Feather and Father Gang.”
Harold Gould was clearly trading on his beloved character Kid Twist from The Sting in this role of a grifter with a heart of gold. Stefanie Powers was as capable as could be expected in the thankless role of the devoted daughter forever exasperated with her father’s repeated return to the underhanded tricks of his former trade. Continue reading
AVENGERS Vol 1 #84 (January 1971) 
While searching for the Well at the Center of Time, the only safe place to hide the Ebony Blade, the Black Knight is captured by Arkon and his new consort – 
JANUARY 8th, 1776 – In Charlestown, Massachusetts, British troops and American Tories were attending a performance of General John Burgoyne’s play The Blockade of Boston. The play was a farce ridiculing the supposed inadequacies of the American rebels. An unknown number of American soldiers carried out a raid on the town, panicking the theater audience, capturing 5 British soldiers and destroying 8 Tory buildings. 
THE MARK OF ZORRO (1920) – Douglas Fairbanks digs into his comedic AND acrobatic skills in this first screen adaptation of Johnston McCully’s masked hero of 1820s California (The Curse of Capistrano had just been published the year before and Fairbanks bought the film rights for United Artists.) 
Excellent fight choreography, heroic opposition to tyranny and the rousing, marathon chase and fight scene near the film’s finale make The Mark of Zorro an absolute must-see for anyone curious about silent movies. Nearly every frame of the film is a portrait.
As always, 
MICROMEGAS (1752) – Written by Voltaire. The famed philosopher’s contribution to the nascent science fiction genre dealt with one of the earliest known instances of beings from other planets depicted visiting the Earth. Amid the fantastic elements of the story Voltaire fits in examinations of the philosophies of Aristotle, Locke, Descartes and others.
Here at 
Whether you like or hate Donald Trump is irrelevant – it became clear long ago that the cesspool of corruption which masquerades as America’s political system is targeting Trump to make a public example of any non-career politician who dares to oppose the establishment.
For this weekend’s light-hearted, escapist blog post about superheroes, Balladeer’s Blog goes back to the Justice Society of America, this country’s very first superteam. Years ago, I covered the early years of the JSA, from their first appearance in 
ALL-STAR COMICS Vol 1 #28 (April 1946) 
Balladeer's Blog 