Balladeer’s Blog’s end of year retrospective continues with this look at February’s best:
UP IN THE AIR AND DOWN IN THE SEA (1863): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – Scientific experimenter Victor Volans devises a passenger balloon which lets him explore two Lost Worlds on islands in the Pacific Ocean. Next he devises underwater exploration techniques which let him recover sunken treasures off Australia and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) while fighting off deep sea monsters. Click HERE.
DEMOCTRAT PRIMARY SEASON PREVIEWED THE RIGGED 2020 ELECTION – With hindsight, the many, many irregularities and “technical glitches” in the Democrats’ primaries and caucuses – which conveniently robbed Bernie Sanders again – proved to be a dry run for the vote fraud in the actual November election. Democrats apparently used the chaos of those primaries to work out the bugs in their “Computer-programmable election results” method. Click HERE.
TWENTY BEST SILVER JOHN PULP STORIES – Manly Wade Wellman’s hero Silver John’s 20 best adventures against supernatural menaces in the Appalachians. Click HERE.
JACK BREWER CALLS TRUMP “THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT” – All that and more about Trump’s accomplishments for communities of color. Click HERE.
CASABLANCA: A Valentine’s Day review of the classic movie from Balladeer’s Blog. Click HERE.
ROLLING STONE’S MATT TAIBBI ON THE DEMOCRAT RIGGING OF THEIR PRIMARY PROCESS – His article argued that “Democrats are doomed elites and dumb crooks.” Click HERE.
TWENTY MORE COOL-NAMED NJCAA COLLEGE TEAMS – Click HERE.
DEMOCRAT ANDREW YANG ON HOW DEMOCRATS HAVE BETRAYED THE WORKING CLASS – The title says it all. Click HERE.
THE FINALE TO DON MCGREGOR’S KILLRAVEN SAGA – For the full review of Let It Die Like It’s The Fourth Of July, the final chapter, click HERE. Continue reading
2020 TEXAS GLADIATORS – January 1st of this year saw the publication of the movie review I’d been planning since I started Balladeer’s Blog back in 2010! My favorite bad/ weird post-apocalypse movie reviewed on New Year’s Day of the year in which it was set. How close to reality were its predictions for the future? Nowhere NEAR close but that’s part of the fun of course.
KILLRAVEN, SABRE AND THE SLOW FADE OF AN ENDANGERED SPECIES – My review of the post-apocalyptic adventures of Killraven and Sabre in the year 2020 as told from the 1970s. 
THE LOG OF THE FLYING FISH (1887): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – My review of the 1887 novel about The Flying Fish, a craft capable of flying and serving as a submarine. 
Here at Balladeer’s Blog I like to listen to you readers. Many of you have enjoyed my takes on the earliest adventures of Marvel Comics characters like 
TALES OF SUSPENSE Vol 1 #59 (November 1964)
Synopsis: The Black Knight (Nathan Garrett), usually a supervillain opponent of Giant-Man & the Wasp, was in prison following the recent clash between the Avengers and Baron Zemo’s original Masters of Evil, of which he was a member. The Knight’s winged horse Elendil at last located its master’s cell window, allowing him to retrieve some chemicals from its saddle-bag. With those chemicals the Black Knight dissolved the bars of his cell, mounted Elendil and flew off, wanting revenge. 
Balladeer’s Blog’s Month-long celebration of Halloween nears its end for 2020 as I take a look at the most seasonal covers of the 1970s Marvel Comics series Son of Satan. The latest Marvel television show, Helstrom, is a very watered-down and weak version of their horror character Daimon Hellstrom, the son of Satan and a mortal woman. (They didn’t even use both “L’s” in the name Hellstrom for the series title, as if h-e-l-l is too shocking for public use.) 
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT Vol 1 #12 (October 1973) 
As Halloween Month continues here’s a look at the very early years of the Marvel Comics horror character Blade the Vampire Slayer, who debuted in 1973. In retrospect I prefer the original “look” for this dynamic figure: the long coat, the bandolier of six teakwood knives and the green-hued “photo-optic visor” aka goggles aka biker shades. I’ve never liked swords for vampire slaying so the wooden knives used by Blade back then appeal to me more. 
alleged legal fights with the original creator of Blade, fights that eventually necessitated the changes in Blade’s look and trademark weaponry. Suffice it to say that the 1970s Blade strikes me as an “Indiana Jones of horror” with a vintage Pulp Magazine vibe. And football player Eric Dickerson would have made a perfect cinematic Blade if a movie had been done in the early 1980s, right after Raiders of the Lost Ark. With Pam Grier as Safron Caulder and Oliver Reed as Deacon Frost.
TOMB OF DRACULA Vol 1 #10 (July 1973) 
Our vampire slayer arrived in time to save all but a few of the “beautiful people” from Dracula.
FIRE-EATER 
Powers: Fire-Eater, as his name would imply, could “eat” and suck in large flames as well as blow fire-blasts from his mouth. He was also impervious to fire and was skilled at unarmed combat. 
MADAME STRANGE 
Powers: Madame Strange was strong enough to rip iron bars out of a jail cell’s window, was bullet-proof and could run at greater than human speed. She was also an expert at unarmed combat and was skilled with a riding crop AND at knife-throwing. In addition this superheroine had her own personal plane from which she could drop bombs. 
THE X-MEN Vol 1 #1 (September 1963) 
Powers: Twister could spin around so quickly that he could generate, control and become part of a tornado strong enough to send cars and trucks flying. By punching villains while spinning around he could k-o them through walls. In addition, by breathing in a lungful of air, this hero could exhale it as gale force winds. 
WHITE STREAK 
When the South American dictator Don Ruizen of Bolita went to war with his neighboring countries over oil, the Utopian robot Manowar activated itself in the volcano where it was hidden. After defeating the armies of the warmongering Don Ruizen, the android moved to America, from then on battling the forces of evil as White Streak. 
LONDON
STORY ONE – Daredevil Comics #2 (August 1941) 
Meanwhile, Dian, a fictional niece of Winston Churchill escapes a Concentration Camp in Nazi-occupied Holland with a dissident educator named Franz. When the pair arrive in the city of London their escape is covered by Marc Holmes, an old friend of the niece and of Churchill. 
THE INCREDIBLE HULK Vol 1 #1 (May 1962) 
