Balladeer’s Blog’s Give Them A Shoutout Before They’re Dead returns with Joe Walsh and Waffle Stomp:
KILLRAVEN THREE: THE WARLORD STRIKES
FOR PART ONE OF BALLADEER’S BLOG’S EXAMINATION OF THIS OLD, OLD MARVEL STORYLINE CLICK HERE The revisions I would make are scattered throughout the synopsis below.
AMAZING ADVENTURES Vol 2 #20 (September 1973)
Title: THE WARLORD STRIKES
Synopsis: We pick up an unspecified number of days after the end of the previous story. We also have yet ANOTHER change in creative team. This issue we have Marv Wolfman writing and Herb Trimpe doing the artwork.
Even more of the sophisticated promise of the first two installments is stripped away as Wolfman & Trimpe serve up a story so bland it would fit right into any given issue of DC Comics’ Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth. The only positive development is that it is at last established that Killraven and M’Shulla, the black member of the rebel band, are the closest of friends.
Killraven and M’Shulla are being pursued by several human quislings who are trying to bring in K.R. alive for their Martian masters. They fail to say why, but we readers can guess that it’s because the Martians want to know how much Killraven was told by the dying Keeper Whitman back in part one. Or because they want to study K.R. in order to understand the mysterious “Power” that grants him certain abilities.
Of course, since this issue doesn’t mention EITHER Keeper Whitman OR “The Power” (a pre-Star Wars variation of The Force) it’s also possible Marv Wolfman was planning to write out those aspects. The way this issue is written it COULD be that the quislings have orders to take Killraven alive just so he can be taken before the Warlord, whom we learn has a vendetta against our main character.
REVISION: To maintain continuity I would have made it so that it was definitively stated that K.R. was wanted alive precisely to be studied because of his paranormal powers and to learn how much the late Keeper Whitman told him about the true nature of Earth’s conquerors: namely that they are aliens and not the demons that conquered, superstitious humanity considers them to be.
And, as always, I’d have eliminated the tenuous War of the Worlds connection and made Earth’s conquerors regular aliens and not ridiculous “Martians.”
As the running fight goes on and on, no mention is made of the forced abandonment of the Freemens’ previous hideout on Staten Island, now known to the Martians. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
DARK (SHADOWS) PHOENIX
The latest attempt at cramming the X-Men’s lengthy, years-long Dark Phoenix storyline into one movie is now in theaters. With everybody reviewing that cram course Balladeer’s Blog will instead take a look at the female Phoenix character from the original 1966-1971 run of Dark Shadows.
Amazingly enough, I often encounter people who claim to have never heard of the Gothic Horror soap opera Dark Shadows. Not the original 5-day a week cult series (still available in reruns), not the movies, not the attempted reboot in 1991 and not the ongoing series of audio plays set in the 1970s onward. If anything they’ve heard of the incredibly lame Tim Burton comedy version of the show starring Johnny Depp.
Decades before Bella Swan was torn between a supposedly hunky vampire and a supposedly hunky werewolf in the Twilight novels, female readers of Tiger Beat magazine were torn between Dark Shadows‘ horror heart-throbs. Jonathan Frid’s vampire Barnabas Collins was one and David Selby’s werewolf/ warlock/ Dorian Gray-figure Quentin Collins was the other.
In terms of female horror heart-throbs from Dark Shadows, Lara Parker’s evil witch Angelique is the best known, but obviously this post will address the unusual supernatural menace the Phoenix, aka Laura Collins, played by Diana Millay (right) on the original Dark Shadows.
In Dark Shadows lore Laura Collins was sold to a Phoenix Cult in Egypt in the 1700s by her evil lover, for whom she had abandoned her husband back in America. The cult used Laura as an offering/ guinea pig, transforming her into a supernatural figure called the Phoenix. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, Halloween Season
WNBA RESULTS
ACES WIN SECOND IN A ROW – The LAS VEGAS ACES took it on the road against the MINNESOTA LYNX yesterday.
The 1st Quarter ended with the Lynx on top 19-11 following which they took a tighter 39-35 edge over the Aces into Halftime. Continue reading
Filed under WNBA
BLOATED MILLIONAIRES PREFER BIDEN, THE WORKING CLASS AND THE POOR PREFER TRUMP
Anti-Trump CNBC’s recent survey results further verify the shift that has gone on in America. Because de facto Third Party President Donald Trump has successfully championed the working class and the poor, America’s bloated rich pigs and Robber Barons hate him. Joe Biden represents a return to “Business as usual, with America’s hopelessly corrupt government functioning EXCLUSIVELY for the wealthy,” so naturally the abusive rich, which Democrats used to at least PRETEND to oppose, prefer him to Trump, who actually fights the abusive rich on our behalf.
Anti-Trump loons hate the president so much that they have been hyping this poll as if it’s a negative for Trump in the eyes of his supporters. Uh. No. It’s confirmation of whose side President Trump is on. If needlessly wealthy trash preferred him then it would prove he had sold out – like Bernie Sanders sold out long ago.
President Trump’s plutocratic foes own all the major media outlets, that’s why the better Trump does on behalf of America’s underdogs the more frantic the media attacks become. Needy, suffering poor and working class people don’t own media outlets, remember.
I’ll once again point out Donald Trump’s similarities to presidents like Franklin Roosevelt and John F Kennedy, two other champions of the working class and the poor. I’ve never claimed FDR and JFK helped the needy strictly for selfless reasons. They both had experienced everything money could buy, like President Trump has, and both wanted something more, like Trump: a place in history.
Anti-Trump loons seem determined to make Donald Trump a martyr of JFK proportions. He has done an incredible job saving America’s economy for ALL social levels, not just the wealthy, like the Democrats and Republicans usually do.
And remember, I never avoid saying if I’ve changed my mind about political figures. Around 2008 I was a Hillary Clinton supporter but the pileup of ACTUAL criminal evidence against her made me change my mind. If we ever get ACTUAL evidence against Trump like there was against Hillary I’ll address it.
So far there’s been nothing remotely resembling evidence, just the sour grapes of privileged Democrats and Republicans who are reminded every day that they are nothing but bought and paid-for whores doing the bidding of the bloated rich pigs that they SHOULD have been fighting, like President Trump is doing. Continue reading
Filed under LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
FOOL KILLER PART TWENTY-SIX: MORE FROM KLARENC WADE MAK
Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore.
FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE
Banjo Player by Maynard Dixon
PART TWENTY-SIX: THE FOOL KILLER (1918) – Last time around I posted plenty of quotes from Mak’s incarnation of the Fool Killer, quotes that would upset both the political left AND the political right here in the 21st Century. FOR THOSE QUOTES CLICK HERE
This time I’ll look at the uniquely stylized America that Mak depicted his Fool Killer traveling through, delivering poetry recitations and lectures plus sharing recipes (?) during down time between slaying fools. Mak’s America seems like a Frank Baum-influenced alternate reality filled with beautiful scenery but marred by politicized religion plus the tyranny of callous tycoons and the elected officials they have in their pockets.
The Fool Killer is followed on his meanderings around the country following the harsh winter of 1916 into 1917 and up through late 1917. Our title figure takes on quasi-chivalric airs and his escapades an urbanized Faerie Queen feel. He spouts original poetry at the drop of a hat but retains the jarring element of violent judgmentalism that afflicts every incarnation of the Fool Killer.
The Klarenc Wade Mak version of the figure seems to regard his mission in a Darwinian way, like he’s a natural force cleansing the land of fools the way that harsh, unforgiving nature inevitably weeds out those too weak to survive. As ever, the delusions of a serial killer taint the high-minded objectives that the Fool Killer pays lip service to.
Not that our folk figure’s targets don’t deserve to be opposed. This Fool Killer battles the abomination of Child Labor, the profit-mongers who sponsor it AND the Judges who perpetuate it through their decisions striking down attempts to eliminate the ugly practice.
He also champions women’s suffrage and fights for the working class against both the bloated rich pigs who exploit them AND the sleazy Union Leaders who sell out the workers in exchange for privileges that only management can hand out.
Here’s a fuller examination of this Fool Killer’s adventures as he wanders Mak’s Surreal States of America: Continue reading
Filed under Mythology, Neglected History
CAN ANY TEAMS CHALLENGE ALABAMA AND CLEMSON FOR THE NEXT COLLEGE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP?
Three of the last four CFP Championship playoffs have featured the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Clemson Tigers. Such has been their dominance of college football in recent times, most football pundits anticipate Alabama and Clemson being leading contenders to make it four playoff appearances in the last five seasons. Some people believe it’s simply a formality that all other college sides will fall be the wayside at some point doing the season, with several other bigtime programs failing to live up to expectations.
According to the latest CFP Championship ratings at Oddschecker, the sportsbooks rate Clemson’s chances of overcoming Alabama and doubling down after their annihilation of the Crimson Tide in January’s final. However, there’s always a chance that the form book will be ripped up and new teams will battle their way to the playoffs. We take a look at some of the leading contenders for the 2020 CFP Championship within the chasing pack behind the Crimson Tide and the Tigers. Continue reading
Filed under college football
DEMOCRATS DECIDE ON MATCHING OUTFITS FOR THEIR FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Given the Clown Car full of Democrat candidates trying to outdo each other at hate-filled and snobbish remarks about the working class and the poor the logistics for the upcoming Presidential Debates have been particularly challenging.
As all veteran followers of Primary Debate Season know, each candidate’s camp fights to ensure that the layout and format will not put their candidate at a disadvantage. Even a perceived disadvantage. Arguments over matching attire for the debate participants are common, since sartorial excellence compared to one’s opponents can seem to give a candidate unearned gravitas.
The Democrats have solved that problem for the first series of debates by mandating that all the participants will dress in these traditional Democrat uniforms from the post-Civil War period. However, burning crosses will NOT be permitted on-stage.
Filed under humor, LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES, Neglected History, opinion
HAPPY BLOOM’S DAY 2019!
Yes, it’s the 16th of June, better known to James Joyce geeks like me as Bloom’s Day. The day is named in honor of Leopold Bloom, the Jewish advertising sales rep and Freemason who is one of the major characters in Joyce’s novel Ulysses. The novel also brings along Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist of his earlier novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
For those unfamiliar with this work, Ulysses is Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness novel in which he metaphorically features the events from the Odyssey in a single day – June 16th, 1904, in Dublin. (The day he met Nora Barnacle, the woman he would eventually marry after living together for decades)
Bloom represents Ulysses/Odysseus, Stephen represents Telemachus and Leopold’s wife, Molly Bloom, represents Penelope. Continue reading
Filed under Mythology, Neglected History
KID RUSSELL: THE TELEVISION SERIES – EPISODE ONE
Self-portrait by Kid Russell
With the Frontierado Holiday coming up in just over a month and a half, Balladeer’s Blog decided to whet readers’ appetites with this look at a gritty cable western series based on the real-life gunslinger turned artist Kid Russell (Charles Marion Russell).
As always, Frontierado is about the myth of the American West, not the grinding reality. This ties it in with Balladeer’s Blog’s examinations of myth and folklore and the ways in which the human tendency toward embellishment crafts everything from religious lore to heroic legends.
Even in the 1800s the exploits of real-life gunslingers were being exaggerated in Dime Novels or overblown newspaper accounts to the degree that the surviving tales of Western figures often bear little resemblance to their actual lives. Television added another layer of distortion as the need for weekly stories saw Western shows presenting the likes of Doc Holliday, Wild Bill Hickok, Bat Masterson and many others in adventures that dropped all pretense of being based on anything “real.”
Even a figure like Annie Oakley, who actually saw no action against outlaws, was depicted fighting crime out west in a weekly series. In that same spirit here’s my presentation of how the framework of fictional adventures can be used to familiarize modern audiences with occasional facts about the adventurers themselves.
KID RUSSELL (Cable Series) – “Before he made the art, he LIVED it!” would be the kind of eye-rolling advertising tagline that one could picture being used for a show like this. I’m not implying any disrespect to Kid Russell or his artistic legacy. Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog are familiar with my regard for the man. (FOR MY LOOK AT THE KID RUSSELL LEGEND CLICK HERE )
I can’t help but speculate that the Kid’s fondness for “windies” would make him smile at the kind of concentrated embellishment I’m about to bring to his real-life adventures. Russell’s famously coy line about how he “… never said how law-abiding I was or wasn’t” made many of the wildest legends about the man seem like there might be more than a kernel or two of truth to them. Continue reading
Filed under Fantastic Movie Reviews, FRONTIERADO
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