The Comic Book Longbox: Marvel Comics #1 (1939) Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing alright. Today I'm going to dig through the Comic Book Longbox and pick out a classic Golden Age comic from 1939, and it's not Detective Comics #27. Instead I'm going into Marvel's archive and checking out Marvel Comics #1 from when Marvel Comics was known as Timely Comics. This issue features the debut of the original Human Torch, Namor, the Sub-Mariner, and Ka-Zar the Great. So let's get into it!

I always forget that Marvel Comics existed before Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four in 1961. Mostly because with the exception of Namor, all of the characters featured in Marvel Comics #1 have been modified over the years so that they no longer resemble their 1939 versions. Plus this issue came out even before Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in 1941. But that doesn't diminish the importance of this issue not only to Marvel Comics and it's long history, but also to the history of comic books and the comic book industry in general.

Like every comic book being published in 1939, this issue is an anthology book made up of many stories, covering a number of literary genres. And apart from the story about the Angel, there isn't actually what you would call a superhero story. The Human Torch story comes close, but Marvel didn't really do superheroes until Captain America debuted. And even then the majority of their Golden Age roster has been modified or eliminated completely or just been forgotten about.

I think my favourite stories would have to be the Human Torch one and the Masked Raider one. With the Human Torch story you have Marvel starting their trend of creating characters who are misunderstood and outcasts to be their heroes. Not everybody could be Superman, but that doesn't mean they can't be heroes in their own right. And I think Stan Lee and other people at Marvel recognized that. Which is why Spider-Man, the X-Men, Captain America, and the Hulk resonate with so many people. I've always said, and I will continue to do so, that DC Comics characters are who the audience/readership want to be while Marvel characters are who we are. And the fact that that was the case even back in 1939 is awesome. 

The Masked Raider is basically Marvel's version of the Lone Ranger, who also hides his identity with a mask, though the Lone Ranger's mask is a domino mask, which many Marvel and DC superheroes wear, while the Masked Raider wears a full face mask similar to what Spider-Man wears. Also, if you remove the 'a' in Raider it becomes Rider, so he's secretly Masked Rider, and Masked in Japan is Kamen, so he's Kamen Rider...I'm kidding of course, but you can see how easily us geeks can fall down certain rabbitholes even if we didn't intend to do so in the first place. 

The Ka-Zar story is interesting because this issue was published at a time where Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan books were still being published, and Bob Byrd, who originally created Ka-Zar for Kaz-Zar #1 (1936), which was a pulp magazine being published at the time, would've read the Tarzan books and watched the Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller starring in the titular role. So it would make sense that Ka-Zar would've been inspired by Tarzan. Which is interesting.

Overall this is a pretty good first issue for a comic book series that started in 1939, around the time that Batman was debuting in Detective Comics and Superman was starting to appear in his own self-titled series, Superman (1939-1987). Even the artwork is pretty good. By the way I have the hardcover reprint edition that Marvel Comics put out in 1990 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the issue. Brad got it for me a few years ago while he was on a trip or something like that. I don't remember exactly where he got it, but I know I wasn't with him at the time. Aside from a couple of retrospective articles by comic book historian, Les Daniels, and former Marvel editor, Roy Thomas, this book is replicated in exact detail to how it was originally produced in 1939. Which is cool.

I think that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts and reviews. So until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The VHS Corner: My Childhood Star Wars VHS Collection (1990s and early 2000s)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing alright. Welcome to another edition of The VHS Corner. Today I'm going to be talking about my childhood Star Wars VHS collection, which primarily consists of boxsets. So let's get right into it and travel A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far Away.

The first Star Wars related VHS tape I ever got was The Star Wars Trilogy Animated Collection: Ewoks Volume 1, which contained two episodes of Ewoks (1985-1986), Episode 1, "The Cries of the Trees" and Episode 6, "The Tree of Light". I don't remember exactly who got it for me, but I think it was Nana, and I got it sometime after we moved to the log house in 1993, with the tape having been released in 1990. Unfortunately, either the top loading VCR my siblings and I had in our upstairs playroom/hangout spot was really crappy or the tape was second hand because we didn't have this tape for very long because it got destroyed by the VCR not too long after we got the tape. It had to have been the tape because the VCR didn't do it with any other tape we owned, except for one Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends VHS that we had, which I'll get into another time, but not with any other tape we had. Both Ewoks and Droids, along with the action figures given to me by a nurse I had at the hospital, and Star Wars: Dark Empire #3, were my first exposure to Star Wars. And it would not be the last either.

Only a year or two later, my dad got the 1995 Star Wars Trilogy VHS boxset for Christmas. Up until this point I hadn't seen any of the Star Wars movies, so this boxset was my introduction to the Original Trilogy. It was also my introduction to both director/writer/producer George Lucas, and film historian Leonard Maltin because on each tape in this boxset, which were also sold individually by the way, there was an interview that Maltin conducted with George. Each part of the interview focused on a movie in the trilogy, including how George came to work with people like John Williams and Frank Oz. The interview on the Return of the Jedi tape is a little bit longer though because George talks about the future of the franchise. This is where I first heard about the Special Editions, which were only a little over a year away from being released to theatres, as well as the Prequel Trilogy, which George had started working on. 

When this interview was done, in either late 1994 or very early 1995, George was planning on writing all three prequel movies at once, which would cut down on how long it would take for him to make the three films. I don't actually know how long it took for George to decide to make the prequels in the same fashion as he'd made the first three films in the '70s and '80s, with work on the script for Episode II not starting until after Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) had been released to theatres and George had gone on vacation with his kids once all the press stuff for the movie had wrapped up. Which is why I feel that The Phantom Menace is the most creative and strongest film in the Prequel Trilogy since George was working on the script for the movie from 1994 until the movie began filming in June, 1997 once all three films in the Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition had been released in theatres and the press from that had ended.

This boxset is in my personal collection today. It's not the original copy that my dad owned but another one that I found in 2019 at a local convention. I think if you were born between 1986 and 1992 this boxset was your first introduction to Star Wars too. I actually don't know anyone in my age group who had any of the earlier VHS releases of the trilogy when they were growing up. I feel like people born between 1980 and 1985 did though. And I mean I know people who were born after 1992 that didn't see the Star Wars movies until the Special Editions had come out in theatres and on home video.

The next tape in the collection was in fact the VHS release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, which was released in 2000, nearly a year after the movie's theatrical release. There's a preview for the Official Star Wars Website on it and that's it. My dad also owned this tape. I don't think he bought it the day it came out, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't that long after that that he got it. I was excited to watch it again because I'd already seen it twice in theatres back in 1999. I also own this tape in my collection yet again.

The next Star Wars VHS tapes I owned was the Star Wars Trilogy boxset from 2000. This was the final VHS release for the Original Trilogy. I don't know if the tapes were released separately as they had been for the 1995 and 1997 boxsets but the designs of the cassette boxes matched the VHS case design for The Phantom Menace, including the removal of any mention of the Special Editions on the packaging, even though the version of each movie used on the tapes are the Special Editions. While the tape for A New Hope has a short featurette before the movie on the making of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), which wasn't due to come out for another year and a half or so by the time this boxset came out, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi just have a new promo for the Official Star Wars Website. 

The final Star Wars VHS that I owned when I was a kid was the Star Wars Saga Video Pack boxset, which was simply just the VHS releases for The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones packaged together. The tapes are exactly the same as their individual releases from 2000 and 2002 respectively, with Episode I containing the same promo for the Official Star Wars Website, and Episode II containing the featurette Star Wars Connections: With C-3PO and R2-D2, which is a recap of the entire Star Wars Saga up to that point narrated by Anthony Daniels as C-3PO couched as recording a historical document for Luke, at the beginning, and the deleted scenes, which were also on the DVD release of the movie, after the movie. The featurette at the beginning is not canon, but might've been prior to the release of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), which revealed that Threepio had had his memory wiped at the end of the movie, probably so he wouldn't accidentally reveal to Leia that Darth Vader was her father, her mother was dead, and she had a secret twin brother being hidden on Tatooine. I got this boxset for my 16th birthday, along with the boxset for the Original Trilogy, and the TV/VCR combo set that I got from my uncle. So these tapes were some of the first VHS releases I got specifically for my TV/VCR combo set which was in my bedroom. 

That my friends is my entire childhood Star Wars VHS collection. I hope you enjoyed this look at it. I wasn't sure what I was going to talk about today until I got up this morning. I had several options to choose from too. I'll be back with some kind of comic book review later this week, probably tomorrow. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) Trailer Discussion

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So this weekend was San Diego Comic-Con and Marvel made a few major announcements and dropped a few trailers. Including the final trailer (maybe?) for the upcoming Disney+ series, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which is starting on August 17th. And that's what I'm here to talk about today. Before I start though, no I'm not going to cover the Star Trek announcements, the DC Comics/Warner Bros. announcements or the other Marvel trailers and announcements. I'm only covering She-Hulk: Attorney at Law because it starts in less than a month and this is probably the final thing we're getting for it before it comes out. So with that out of the way, let's get into it.

Since Endgame came out back in 2019 I've been taking each Marvel project on a case by case basis simply because there's alot of them that I just don't have any interest in and others come out at the same time as other shows that I would rather watch instead. So I either take them or leave them. I do try to watch as many of the trailers as possible though, especially if I'm already interested in said show, like I was for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye. Because a show's trailer can surprise me sometimes, especially if it's for a show I'm not immediately sold on by premise or cast alone. Like with She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (which I'm going to refer to simply as She-Hulk from here on out). 

Aside from Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk and Benedict Wong as Wong, I'm not familiar with anyone in this cast. I know of Tatiana Maslany, who is playing Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, because of the commercials I used to see on TV for Orphan Black (2013-2017), plus she's Canadian, but everything she's been in up to this point have been things that are outside of my purview so I haven't seen anything in her filmography. Sort of. The thing is she got her start on a Canadian children's TV show called Incredible Story Studios (1997-2002), which I watched on YTV in the late '90s and early 2000s alongside Radio Active (1998-2001), Animorphs (1998-1999/2000), and Digimon (1999-2017). Incredible Story Studios was an anthology show where kids would send their stories in and they would be adapted into a ten minute segment for an episode, with two stories per episode. Anyways Tatiana appeared in two episodes of the show, one in 1998 and the other in 2000. So if I saw those episodes then I saw her.

Honestly what sucked me into this show with the trailer was the light tone of it. Pretty much all of these Marvel shows have been pretty heavy on one level or another, and there have been more of them that I haven't been interested in than there have ones that I was interested in. So it's nice to have a show that is much much lighter in tone than previous shows. Even Hawkeye was darker than this show looks like it's going to be, and Hawkeye is one of my favourite shows. So to have what's basically a sitcom like Modern Family set in the MCU is exactly what we need right now.

I also like that, so far, based on this trailer alone, the stakes are smaller. Hopefully. Marvel has this ability to pull a bait and switch with things like that. I mean the trailer for Ms. Marvel made it look like it was going to be a basic teen comedy/drama and it ended up trying to be a bit more than that. But even if She-Hulk does try to be more, it's going for nine episodes, and I think that will really allow the show to breathe in a way that Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel and Loki couldn't with them only being six episodes. Not so much Loki, since it's getting a second season, but Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel did have problems being only one season of six episodes each.

I have to admit that the initial teaser that we got turned me off of the show because the CG work for She-Hulk was so bad. Hulk's wasn't great, it being a smaller budget than they had for Avengers: Endgame (2019), but it was better than She-Hulk's because they already had the model for the character from the work done on Endgame. They fixed that for this trailer though and Tatiana looks really good in She-Hulk form. Some of the reactions I've seen on YouTube have had people who are still iffy about She-Hulk's CG work, but I think it looks much better in this trailer than it did in that teaser.

The weirdest thing for me though is seeing Abomination again. I haven't seen Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) yet, so I didn't know he appears there. So for me, I haven't seen him since I tried to watch The Incredible Hulk (2008) back in 2012, not long after I saw The Avengers (2012). Especially because we haven't had a solo Hulk movie since 2008 either, though General Ross has shown up in various MCU films since then. And obviously Hulk has shown up in many MCU films since then too.

Overall this trailer has me intrigued about this show. Again, I was very on the fence about it, because I don't consider myself to be a Marvel fan. But I'm gonna watch the first episode at least when it comes out on August 17th on Disney+. Especially because The Orville will be finished by then and I'm hoping to be finished season 2 of The Hardy Boys by then as well. It's just Disney's been keeping me busy with all of these shows lately.

That my friends is going to be it for me for tonight. I will be back tomorrow, probably, for this week's edition of The VHS Corner. So until then have a wonderful night and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

The Comic Book Longbox: Batman: The Black Casebook (2009)

 Hey everyone! How're you all doing today? It's pretty hot outside the Geek Cave today, but I'm in air conditioning, so I'll be fine. Today we're going to be digging through the Comic Book Longbox and diving into another Batman compilation trade paperback from my past. Unlike The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, this one is a bit more recent. So let's get into it.

Batman: The Black Casebook is a trade paperback that collects several issues of Batman and Detective Comics from the 1950s and 1960s that illustrate some of Batman's weirder cases. The cover says that the stories inspired Batman: R.I.P. by Grant Morrison, but from what I remember of these stories, there are elements in them that Morrison used both earlier and later in his run. For example the characters of Wingman, Man of Bats, who is the Indigenous version of Batman, and the Club of Heroes were all characters that Morrison used in other story arcs both before and after R.I.P. with the Batmen of All Nations appearing in Batman #'s 667 through 669 in 2007, and then being expanded upon, becoming Batman Inc., in Batman Incorporated #'s 1-8 in 2011. The elements that appeared in R.I.P. are the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, Bat-Mite, Thomas Wayne's "Bat-Man" suit, and the Army Doctor from Batman #156 actually being Doctor Simon Hurt, the main antagonist of Batman: R.I.P. 

I never owned this book. Sometime in 2010 or 2011 I borrowed it from the public library. It was after I'd gotten the trade paperback for R.I.P. and I was interested to see what stories inspired the insanity created by Grant Morrison, a writer whose work is hit or miss for me, depending on the story and the character he's writing. For example I'm not a huge fan of R.I.P. but I love All-Star Superman and Batman Incorporated. But being this was in 2010 or 2011, I borrowed this book because I was interested in seeing where Morrison took elements for his stories from. Let's dive into the individual issues shall we?

First up is Batman #65 and the story "A Partner for Batman!" from 1951. This story was the first appearance of Wingman, and the last until Batman #667, during Morrison's run. Back in the '40s, '50s, and early '60s, Batman had multiple stories in it, so for collections such as this a single story from an issue can be included even though the rest of the issue has nothing to do with the collection the story is being included in. In this story, Robin is injured so Batman uses the opportunity to train Wingman, a costumed character who Batman intended to be the Batman of Europe. Which is the start of the Batmen of All Nations, which would become Batman Inc. during the latter half of Morrison's run in 2010-2011.

 Next up is "Batman - Indian Chief" from Batman #86 published in 1954. This was the introduction of Man of Bats and his partner, Little Raven. Apart from the title, which was typical in 1954, this story was not great. But again, it was typical of the '50s. I mean Peter Pan had just been released in theatres the year before and that movie's depiction of indigenous people is on par with their depiction in this issue. Luckily when Morrison revamped the characters of Man of Bats and Little Raven, he renamed Little Raven to Red Raven, and gave them their own unique costumes that made them more distinct from Batman and Robin. 

Next is "The Batmen of All Nations!" from Detective Comics #215, published in 1955. This story was the genesis of Batman Incorporated, the Batmen of All Nations featuring Batmen from all around the world. I honestly don't remember much more about the story than that. It's been 11 to 12 years since I read it and like I said, it's not a book I own and it's not one DC has kept in print. As far as I know anyway. They tend not to keep collections like this in print after a few years. Even if they do a reprint.

Next is "The First Batman!" from Detective Comics #235, published in 1956. Because I already covered this issue in my overview of The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told (1988), I'm not going to talk about it again here. If you want to know what it's about, check out my overview of that book.

Then we have "The Club of Heroes!" from World's Finest Comics #89, published in 1957. It's essentially another Batmen of All Nations story, this time with Superman joining them for a case. And they fight against someone named Lightning Man, who is supposedly a new member of their group, but for some reason his powers have an effect on Superman. 

Then we have "The Man Who Ended Batman's Career!" from Detective Comics #247, published in 1957. This issue had to do with a criminal causing Batman to have a fear of bats, forcing him to stop wearing his Batman costume, and stop him from using his Bat arsenal, becoming Starman instead. Which is interesting since this was after the original Starman, Ted Knight, fell into obscurity due to the falling popularity of superheroes after Fredric Wertham's campaign against comic books. Despite the issue being published in 1957, the Bruce Wayne version of Starman was later named the Starman of 1951. 

Next is "Am I Really Batman?" from Batman #112, published in 1957. This has to do with Professor Milo, the villain from the previous story in this book. I won't give away the whole story, but it's similar to other stories where Batman deals with the possibility that he isn't actually Batman.

Next is "Batman - Superman of Planet X!" from the very next issues, Batman #113, published in 1958. The title of this story is a bit misleading since the planet Batman finds himself the Superman of is called Zur-En-Arrh, not Planet X. Though if I remember correctly, Planet X does exist in the DC Universe. This story introduced the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, which Morrison revamped into an alternate version of Batman, which eliminates the Bruce Wayne personality from Batman altogether, leaving none of Batman's humanity intact in a serious crisis, such as the events of R.I.P. though it never comes up again after that arc, so I don't think Morrison made it so that the change over is permanent. This is the sort of thing that makes Grant Morrison a hit or miss writer for me. His stuff is REALLY bizarre, especially for a character like Batman.

Next is "Batman Meets Bat-Mite" from Detective Comics #267, published in 1959. This issue is the first appearance of Bat-Mite, the Batman looking imp from another dimension. That's all I really have to say about this issue, because, again, I haven't read this book in a really long time, so I don't remember much. But it's the first Bat-Mite story, which means lots of mischief. Because it's Bat-Mite.

Up next is "The Rainbow Creature" from Batman #134, published in 1960. I don't remember this story at all. I also don't really know what it has to do with Grant Morrison's run on Batman let alone the R.I.P. story arc. Maybe because it's just a weird story and that's it? I have no idea honestly. 

Next is "Robin Dies at Dawn" from Batman #156, published in 1963. Again, because I covered this story in my overview of The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told I'm not going to say much more about it here. However, as I mentioned earlier, this story spawned the character of Doctor Hurt, who was just an ordinary Army Doctor in this issue, but in Morrison's run, he's the mastermind behind everything going on in R.I.P. as well as the issues that led directly into that story arc. So of all the stories in this collection, this is the one that influenced Morrison the most when he wrote R.I.P.

Finally we have "The Batman Creature" from Batman #162, published in 1964 and it's one of the last issues published before Julius Schwartz became the editor of the Batman comics and introduced the "New Look" Batman in Detective Comics #327 and Batman #164. Aside from Batman getting turned into a King Kong style monster being weird, I don't see what this story has to do with anything that Grant Morrison did during his run. Aside from the Zur-En-Arrh thing, Morrison's run is pretty solidly grounded in reality compared to many of the stories that were published in Batman and Detective Comics in the '50s and early to mid '60s. 

That's it for this book, but before I go, I just wanted to mention that within the story of Grant Morrison's run on Batman, the black casebook was a book that Batman used to chronicle his weirdest cases. It was a gimmick used by Morrison to try and re-incorporate all of Batman's pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths history. Including characters such as Julie Madison, the original Batwoman, Kathy Kane, and the original Bat-Girl, Betty Kane as well as Batman's more colourful villains from the Silver Age. Of course, because Morrison's run came right before the New 52 started, basically nothing Morrison did in his run, aside from Damian Wayne, stayed.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I will be back soon with more posts. This one and the Batman VHS post that I did yesterday were the primary blog posts that I wanted to get out this week. And I did. So until next time have a wonderful afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care and stay cool!

The VHS Corner: Batman on VHS (1985-1995)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing alright. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I definitely did. Today I've got another VHS Corner post for you. This time I'm going to take a look at the Batman VHS that I watched when I was a kid. This includes ones we rented, ones we owned, and ones I saw away from home. I'm probably just going to look at these in release order since, aside from two of the tapes, I don't actually have a definitive order in which I saw these tapes. So let's get into it.

The first tape on this list is Super Powers Collection: Batman from 1985. This tape contains five episodes of the 1968 cartoon produced by Filmation, The Adventures of Batman, starring Olan Soule as the voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne, and Casey Kasem as the voice of Robin/Dick Grayson. My parents rented this tape for me sometime between 1993 and 1996 as we still lived in the log house at the time and all five of us watched the tape together as a family. I actually found it interesting that Batman starred in cartoons long before Batman: The Animated Series debuted in 1992. I didn't grow up with reruns of the various Super Friends shows, so this was my first exposure to earlier Batman cartoons.

Next up is the 1989 VHS release of Batman: The Movie (1966), which is the only release involving the 1966 Batman TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. I have this tape in my collection now, but back then, the only way I had of watching this movie was on the taped off PBS VHS that we had. I watched this while we were visiting the farm of someone who my dad used to work with. Of course I watched because I had already seen the movie on the taped off TV version we had, and loved it. Plus it's Batman. I don't remember exactly when we went to visit my dad's former coworker, but I think it was within that same time period between 1993 and 1996, when we lived in the log house.

Even though my dad owned the original VHS release of Batman (1989) I didn't see the movie until maybe 1995 or 1996, when I was in the hospital for a medical procedure and the person next to me in the room in the Medical Day Unit had it on. I only saw up to the point where the Joker reveals himself for the first time. My first full viewing of the movie came sometime in the 2000s when I borrowed my dad's copy of the VHS to watch up in my bedroom. It was before 2004 or 2005, when I got the DVD boxset of all four Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Batman movies. I have a later printing of this tape in my current VHS collection. The edition I have now omits the Batman Coca-Cola commercial that the original release has before the movie.  

Batman Returns is a completely different story. I saw this movie in the summer of 1993. I was in the hospital for the operation on my esophagus, and my roommate and his mom had the movie on. Being the Batman fan that I was, I watched it too. It was so creepy that it legitimately scared the crap out of me. Especially Danny DeVito's portrayal of the Penguin. I would rewatch it on VHS as a teenager in the 2000s and it didn't scare me quite as much as it did when I saw it back in 1993, but to this day Batman Returns is far from my favourite Batman movie. I have this tape in my current VHS collection.

Batman Forever was the only Batman VHS that I owned in my personal movie collection. I got it from my godfather for my ninth birthday in 1995 and I watched it all the time. This was actually my first introduction to Two-Face as he hadn't been in the Batman comics I'd gotten up to that point, and I don't think I'd seen his introductory episodes of Batman: The Animated Series yet. This was also my introduction to Val Kilmer (I wouldn't see Willow or Top Gun until years later), Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, and Chris O'Donnell. 

And those are the Batman movies and TV shows that I watched on VHS when I was a kid. It's not a big list but it's something I could easily put together since I wasn't actually sure what my topic was going to be today. 

That's it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow with a look at another trade paperback collected edition from my childhood. So until then have a wonderful rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The Magazines of Star Wars (1978-)

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday. I'm finally doing my look at the magazines of Star Wars. Now that SNW is over and other shows that I watch are gonna be wrapping up in the next few weeks, including Ms. Marvel earlier this week, I decided to take this time to get to the posts I've had on the list for awhile. Including this one. So get into your time machines of choice and come on back to 1978 with me as I discuss "The Magazines of Star Wars".

After the success of Star Wars in 1977, Lucasfilm began the Official Star Wars Fan Club. As with the Star Trek Fan Club, which was about to come into being around this same time, the Official Star Wars Fan Club also had it's own newsletter. The newsletter was originally called The Official Star Wars Fan Club Newsletter before being changed to Bantha Tracks with issue #4. The first several issues focused on interviews with the cast and crew of Star Wars as well as delivering news about the next Star Wars movie, which would eventually be titled The Empire Strikes Back. This was how Star Wars fans got information about the movie since there was no internet and no fan events like Star Wars Celebration.

However, this periodical wasn't available on magazine racks in stores. You had to be part of the fan club in order to receive it. So those people who couldn't be part of the fan club, usually resorted to reading Starlog magazine in order to find out the information. This periodical did have exclusive content that no other magazine had. With these issues readers were kept apprised of the production of The Empire Strikes Back and then later, Return of the Jedi, the Ewok TV movies, and the Droids and Ewoks cartoons.

As the '80s progressed, there were no more Star Wars movies being produced, so Bantha Tracks continued on and became more focused on Lucasfilm's other film and TV show endeavors, such as Indiana Jones, the Ewoks and Droids cartoons (as mentioned previously) and the opening of Star Tours at Disneyland. But by 1987 Star Wars was fading from pop culture as the Marvel Comics run ended, no new novels were being published and both cartoons had ended, with the toys ending up in bargain bins, having been replaced by Transformers, G.I. Joe, He-Man, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Lucasfilm chose to shut down the Official Star Wars Fan Club and the periodical in early 1987. The final issue was issue #35, which celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the release of Star Wars. 

The fan club did not go away though. Only a few months later, the Official Lucasfilm Fan Club was launched by Dan Madsen, who was also responsible for the Official Star Trek Fan Club. While Star Wars was still part of Lucasfilm, the new fan club periodical, The Official Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine, also reported on their other films such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Willow, and Tucker: A Man and His Dream, as well as other mediums such as video game projects, books, comics, toys, etc. There was even a merchandise catalogue included for the first time. Though at first the Star Wars merchandise was limited to new editions of previously published books and comics, and older toys, since no new Star Wars material was being produced. 

While George Lucas still hadn't committed to making more Star Wars movies, as the 1980s transitioned into the 1990s, Star Wars was beginning to see a resurgence in pop culture as all three movies saw a re-release on VHS and Laserdisc in 1990. However 1991 saw the publication of a novel called Heir to the Empire which was written by Timothy Zahn and published by Bantam Spectra Books, and rocketed to the top of the New York Times' Best Seller's list showing that there were indeed still fans of Star Wars out there who wanted new material. At the same time, Dark Horse Comics published a six issue mini-series called Star Wars: Dark Empire which was written by Tom Veitch and had art by Cam Kennedy. With new novels, comics, and video games coming out, Star Wars became the dominant subject of the magazine, even though The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles began airing on ABC in 1992. 

 1994 was a big year for Star Trek and Star Wars, as I mentioned in the first part of my Magazines of Star Trek article. For Star Wars it was even bigger. More novels and comics were coming out, the computer game, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, was released, and George Lucas announced that he was starting to work on a trilogy of prequel movies for the franchise, as well as updating some of the special effects in the original trilogy to be re-released in theatres for the 20th Anniversary of Star Wars in 1997. So with issue #23 The Official Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine became Star Wars Insider, which shifted the focus of the publication, and the fan club itself, back onto Star Wars.

The first issue of Star Wars Insider I ever got was #43, the last issue to come out before the theatrical release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999. While the official Star Wars website went online in 1996, the magazine was still the major source for Star Wars news. Particularly when it came to the novels and comics. It was especially the ONLY source for Star Wars news for me because I did not have access to the internet until 2000-2001 and that was limited to school and when I stayed with my grandparents at the cottage. I also loved reading the articles, and seeing what was available in the merchandise catalogue, which was named Jawa Trader. I don't get the magazine anymore, but from 1999 until 2021 I would get it off and on, depending on where the magazine. From about 2009 through to when I stopped buying it I would get the magazine from the grocery store. Before that I primarily got it at Chapters though some back issues I'd get from comic book stores, geek sales, or conventions. 

Star Wars Insider has over 200 issues now and, including the 22 Official Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine issues, has been in publication for 35 years. Unlike other magazines of the '90s like Star Trek Communicator, Starlog, Nintendo Power, and Disney Adventures, all of which ceased publication sometime in the 2000s, Star Wars Insider has been through all of the major changes in the franchise, from the completion of the Prequel Trilogy, to the announcement that Disney had bought Lucasfilm, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, to the start of the Disney+ era.

In this day and age Star Wars Insider is redundant since we're in the era of live Twitter feeds, the Official Star Wars website, YouTube and other forms of internet communication that we get our Star Wars news from. Oftentimes, and this is something I've noticed recently especially, the news in the magazine is several weeks to a month old by the time an issue of the magazine is published. So it's no longer new. Some of the articles are fun to read, but can also be redundant. Which is why I stopped buying the magazine. It is pretty amazing that Star Wars Insider still exists. Especially because all of it's '90s contemporaries either ceased publication in the 2000s, or were transformed into modern incarnations such as Star Trek Magazine and Star Trek Explorer. Even the other three Star Wars magazines that I'm about to talk about ended publication by the mid 2000s. 

Around the time that The Official Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine became Star Wars Insider in 1994, a secondary magazine, known as Star Wars Galaxy Magazine began publication. This magazine was almost redundant as it contained alot of the same information that Star Wars Insider would publish. The only difference is that the issues would contain exclusive comic strips and short stories that weren't found in the other magazine. Plus, because it was published by Topps, they would include special trading cards that came with the issues.

This magazine was very short-lived however. It ran from 1994 until 1997, with only 13 issues being published. I think that's because it was too similar to Star Wars Insider, despite the exclusive comic strips and short stories being published in the magazine. 

A year later, Topps tried again this time they revamped the magazine into Star Wars Galaxy Collector, which was a magazine that focused solely on the collecting side of Star Wars fandom. It covered books, comics, toys, and other collectibles. 

I only ever got one issue of this magazine. The one I got was issue #6 which covered all of the merchandise being released for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace throughout 1999. The issue was published in May 1999, close to when the movie was being released. Because the magazine was published quarterly, this issue was still on the shelves that summer so this ended up being the second Star Wars magazine I ever owned.

Star Wars Galaxy Collector ceased publication at the end of 1999, after only eight issues had come out. I'm not sure why this magazine was cancelled, but this was around the time that Star Wars Insider was changing things around with it's format to include departments on toys, books, and video games. But that's only speculation on my part because I can't find any reason as to why it was cancelled after only eight issues, at a time where so much Star Wars merchandise was coming out. Especially with Del Rey starting to publish The New Jedi Order, and the prequels spawning comic books, video games and toys galore. 

The last magazine I want to talk about is Star Wars Gamer. This was a magazine that began in 2000, almost a year after Star Wars Galaxy Collector ended it's run. This magazine focused on Star Wars gaming. Not just video games, but roleplaying games and board games too. It also included exclusive comic strips and short stories like Star Wars Galaxy Magazine had in the mid '90s. 

This magazine ended after issue #10 came out in May 2002, the same month that Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones came out. Again, I can't find anything that gives a reason for why it was cancelled. All Wookieepedia says is that it ended in May 2002. Again this was just after Star Wars Insider went under a restructure and the content that would be in these auxiliary magazines started to be expanded upon in Star Wars Insider. 

That my friends is it for my look at the magazines of Star Wars. Like I said, it's much shorter than my look at the magazines of Star Trek, since Star Wars has had far less of them than Star Trek has had over the years. Of course I talked about Star Wars Insider the most since it's still in publication and it's the one that I've read the most over the years. 

With that another week comes to an end here at the Geek Cave. I'll be back next week with plenty more blog posts. So until then have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Ms. Marvel (2022) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! How're you all doing today? I'm fine. I'm here to review Ms. Marvel now that the show is done. There will be minor spoilers so if you're watching the show and haven't watched the finale yet, or were waiting for the show to be over before you watched it, please go do that before you read this review. Let's get into it.

As I said in my episode 1 review, this show is my first encounter with Kamala Khan so I don't know a thing about her story or how much was changed in the adaptation process from the comic books to the show. Watching this show though you didn't really need to because it's a very easy world to fall into. At least at the start. As the show progressed though it ended up falling into the same trap as all of the other Marvel shows have in that once again they tried to do too much in such a short amount of episodes.

My favourite part of this show was Kamala herself. Iman Vellani played the character so well and I was there for that character the whole time, even if the story itself got unnecessarily convoluted, I was there for Kamala because she was amazing. I was also there for the fun stuff, like that entire dance sequence during her brother Aamir's wedding in episode 3 and the Avengers Con stuff in episode 1, even the high school stuff in the first two episodes. 

I also loved the dynamic between Bruno and Kamala. Though I do wish that Nakia had a bigger role in this show because I really liked her and not enough was done with her because of the stuff going on with the Clandestines. I also loved Kamala's parents.

That doesn't mean that the stuff with the Clandestines and with the Department of Damage Control was bad. It just felt like it was too much for a six episode series, when that could've been what Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau help Kamala with in The Marvels (2023). It needed to be more fleshed out and the show just didn't have time to do so given it was only six episodes and it doesn't look like any of it will carry over into the movie. Though I do hope Damage Control appears in the movie because I wanna see what happens to Agent Deever following her screw up in the finale of this show. Particularly because they made such a big deal out of her character in the first three episodes but hardly did anything with her until the finale, and even then, they barely did anything with her.

I did enjoy the fourth episode when Kamala and her mother, Muneeba, go to Karachi, Pakistan, to visit Kamala's grandmother. The aerial footage of the city was absolutely gorgeous and unique compared to New York City or Chicago or LA or Toronto and Ottawa even. Visually this show was amazing the entire time. 

I do wish that Marvel would stop doing the thing where a character wears a makeshift costume for a whole movie or for a whole series before getting their actual costume at the end of the movie or in the final episode of the show though. It doesn't even make sense for Spider-Man. It's also getting a bit tiresome to see it every single time we get a new superhero character in the MCU. 

Overall, despite my problem with how bloated the show feels, particularly near the end, I really enjoyed Ms. Marvel and really hope that Kamala continues in the MCU following The Marvels next year. I defnitely recommend you check it out if you haven't watched it yet. It's pretty great.

Alright my friends that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon for more posts. Not sure when exactly yet but I might have a movie review for you on Friday or I might do another post tomorrow. We'll see though. In the meantime have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

The VHS Corner: My Childhood Teddy Ruxpin Collection

 Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was great. Welcome back to The VHS Corner. Today we're taking a look at the Teddy Ruxpin VHS tapes that I had when I was a kid. Like with my post on the Disney Sing-Along Songs, I'm going to go in the order that I got the tapes in. Unlike with that post though I'll only be talking about the tapes I owned, because we actually only rented one of the Teddy Ruxpin tapes, that we didn't end up owning, once so there's not much else to say about it. If you want my full reviews on the 12 original Teddy Ruxpin VHS tapes, head on over to the Review Basement as all of those reviews are up there. Without further ado, let's get into it.

The first Teddy Ruxpin VHS tape I ever got was Volume 2, Guests of the Grunges. It was really early on in either 1988 or 1989. I watched it on endless rotation with Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, and Disney Sing-Along Songs: The Bare Necessities. To this day this is still my favourite Teddy Ruxpin tape. In fact, when Vincent from The Grundo Gazette sent me digitized copies of all of the Teddy Ruxpin VHS tapes two years ago, I put this one on as soon as it had finished downloading. As soon as the Hi Tops Video shoelace logo appeared on my screen, I was immediately transported back to when I was a kid, sitting on my living room floor, in front of our old tube TV with my parents, and then later my sister after she was born. The first six tapes of this series had live action bookends where Teddy would talk to the viewer and at the end show them the bonus gift that was included in the cassette box. For Guests of the Grunges it was a recipe card for Teddy's Friendship Chocolate Chip Cookies. While I don't have the tape anymore, I do still have the recipe card and I keep it with my Teddy Ruxpin books.

The next tape I got was actually released before Guests of the Grunges. We had rented The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin from both West Coast Video, which doesn't exist anymore, and Rogers Video, which still exists but not as a video store, and eventually Rogers Video was selling off their copy, so my parents bought it for me since we rented it all the freakin' time. I'm not even kidding you. We rented this tape so much. For those of you who don't know, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin is a live action TV movie that used animatronic puppets for the characters and it aired on the ABC Weekend Specials in 1985. The movie was supposed to be the pilot episode for a live action TV series adaptation of Teddy Ruxpin but the movie turned out to be so costly that The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin became an animated series in 1987 and ran for 65 episodes. When I watched this tape for the first time in years when Vincent sent it to me, I teared up a little when the Children's Video Library balloon logo appeared on screen with the accompanying music. Because, again it was so connected to us renting tapes from Rogers Video because the Rainbow Brite tapes we rented also opened with the Children's Video Library logo, but that's a topic for another time.

Before I get into the remaining three Teddy Ruxpin tapes that I owned when I was a kid, I just wanted to show you what I meant when I said the Hi-Tops Video shoelace logo and the Children's Video Library balloon logo. To me these two logos are as nostalgic to me as the Walt Disney Home Video logos or the '90s Paramount Pictures logo are and any time I see them I'm instantly transported back to my childhood. Back to the tapes.

These final three tapes I'm gonna talk about are ones that I got all at the same time, so I'll be talking about them in volume order/release order. First up is volume 4, Take a Good Look, which features the first standalone episode of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin ever as well as the first episode of the series following the five episode pilot story arc. We got this tape sometime before 1993 as it was before we moved out to the log farmhouse we lived in from 1993 until 1996. Unlike with Guests of the Grunges, which I got practically brand new, this tape was a second hand buy or a former rental as it didn't come with the special bonus gift which was a journal. It was still fun watching Teddy talk about it after the episode though.

Next is volume 5, Grubby's Romance. This episode is one of my favourite episodes of the entire series. And it's my second favourite episode next to "Guests of the Grunges". I think Grubby and Karen was my first on screen couple since Riker and Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation weren't exactly a couple during TNG's run, except when an episode's script needed them to be, but that's a story for another time. Anyway Grubby and Karen are the first on screen romantic couple I ever saw as I don't think I'd even seen Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse at this point. Like with Take a Good Look this tape was another second hand/former rental buy as it didn't come with the pen pal postcards that were originally included as the special bonus gift.

The final Teddy Ruxpin VHS I ever got was volume 9, Tweeg Gets the Tweezles, which is another favourite episode of mine. The is the first and only Teddy Ruxpin tape I had as a kid where the live action bookends weren't filmed for it and there was no special bonus gift included. Instead the tape ends with a preview of the only live action Teddy Ruxpin tape within the 12 volume series itself, volume 7 Come Dream with Me Tonight, which is actually quite similar to the Barney and the Backyard Gang videos that were starting to come out on VHS around the time these tapes were coming out. I think I'm going to do a separate look at Come Dream with Me Tonight another time, maybe in tandem with Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies, the final book and tape set to come out when the original Teddy Ruxpin came out in 1985. The song from that tape that is the preview at the end of the Tweeg Gets the Tweezles tape is "This Lovely Night", the final song on the audiotape for Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies. I didn't have Teddy Ruxpin Lullabies when I was a kid, so this VHS tape was my first exposure to that song and it's one of my favourite Teddy Ruxpin songs ever.

As I mentioned earlier, Vicent Conroy, the man who runs the fansite, The Grundo Gazette, sent me digitized copies of all 12 Teddy Ruxpin VHS tapes, as well as the 2000 VHS, Teddy Ruxpin: The Movie, which is the first five episodes of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin (released across the first three original VHS volumes) edited together into movie form, and the 1985 VHS of the live action TV movie, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, two years ago. I've watched all fourteen tapes and I love seeing the tapes that I didn't own when I was a kid as much as I love rewatching the ones I DID own when I was a kid. I will be forever thankful to Vincent for sending those my way at the start of the pandemic. 

Some of these tapes were re-released in 1998 by Yes! Entertainment to go with the Teddy Ruxpin TV Video Pack which connected the Yes! Entertainment version of Teddy Ruxpin to a small device that also connected to the TV so that when the tapes are playing the Teddy Ruxpin toy provides voiceover commentary, similar to his narration with the audiocassettes and audio cartridges that came with the books depending on which version of Teddy you're talking about. I've only ever seen the TV Video Pack in action on the Grundo Gazette YouTube channel. Vincent did a video focusing on the TV Video Pack almost three years ago at the beginning of the website and the YouTube channel. So go check out the Grundo Gazette on YouTube if you're a Teddy Ruxpin fan. All four of the tapes I owned as a kid were re-released for the TV Video Pack in 1998, so that's pretty cool.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for tonight. I will be back sometime tomorrow though for my review of Ms. Marvel as the finale drops on Disney+ tomorrow. So stay tuned for that. But until then have a wonderful night and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 (2022) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! As promised I'm back for my review of season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. There will be spoilers so if you haven't finished the season yet, or haven't even started it yet, please go watch the show, before you read this review. Let's get into it.

As mentioned before, I was incredibly skeptical when this show was announced. With poorly both Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard had turned out in their first seasons, and the fact that Akiva Goldsman's track record with working on Hollywood studio franchises such as Batman being not great, I was worried that this show would be worse than Picard seasons 1 and 2 combined and that the creatives working on it would continue to struggle with balancing an ensemble cast which is something that I've criticized Discovery for the entire time it's been on the air. My one saving grace for this series was the fact that Anson Mount and Ethan Peck would be returning as Pike and Spock respectively, and they were the best parts of season 2 of Discovery. For me anyway. 

With each casting announcement, I became more and more excited, but still cautiously optimistic because I wanted to like this show but quality is very important to me, and I was not confident in the producers and writers's abilities to turn out a quality show that was more than just a game of spot the easter eggs while being dark, brooding, and very brutal. But I was excited because we were getting to see Nurse Chapel, someone who never got the character development she deserved in TOS or the TOS movies, and didn't even get screentime in the Kelvin timeline movies. Not to mention Doctor M'Benga, who was such a minor character in the original series that I was intrigued with his inclusion here.

The pilot aired and it was great. And then as each week went by and each new episode aired I was excited for each of them, and watching the show stopped being a show that I felt obligated to watch because I'm a Star Trek fan, and became a show that I was excited to watch and then talk about every single week. Did I feel every episode was a 10/10 show? No. There were absolutely episodes that I liked more than others. My favourite episodes being episode 5, "Spock Amok" and episode 8, "The Elysian Kingdom". But none of them were bad and they all kept me interested in all of the characters, not just in Pike, Spock, and Una. So by the time the season finale closed with the arrest of Una by Captain Batel I cared enough that I began thinking of ways Pike could get her out of her predicament without jeopardizing his Starfleet career, since, you know, he had to be around long enough to give command of the Enterprise over to Kirk and be put in the beeping wheelchair. 

Same thing goes with Hemmer's death in episode 9. I've mentioned this before but one of the problems that Discovery has problems with is balancing and developing characters on the show. Tilley, Stamets, Burnham, and Saru are all very developed characters. But characters like Detmer, Owosekun, Bryce, and Rhys were pushed to the side. So in season 2, when Airiam was killed off, having been compromised by Control, it wasn't impactful because we hadn't spent much time with her, and we only got some basic background information on her in the episode where she was killed. That background info wasn't enough to make the audience care about her death because she was a blank slate to us.

Hemmer on the other hand was different. While we may not have known a whole lot about his family or his career prior to being assigned to the Enterprise as chief engineer, we didn't necessarily need to because we learned who he is through his interactions with the rest of the cast over the course of eight episodes (he was only in the pilot for two seconds at the end of the episode). We saw him encourage Uhura many times, we saw him interact with Spock in a playful manner, we saw him revel in playing a wizard in M'Benga's storybook fantasy in episode 8, and we saw how he handled things in a crisis. And all of that more than made up for our lack of knowledge about his background. Does background information flesh out a character? Yes, absolutely. Do we need to know all or any of it? Not unless it informs us as the audience, of a pertinent piece of information related to the situation given to us in a story. In this case, episodes of a television show. And only if it helps to move the story along or be part of a character's progression. So when Hemmer died not only did we, as the audience, feel it, but we saw WHY the other characters felt it. Why Spock lost control of his emotions during the memorial, which led to Chapel hugging him in the corridor. Why Uhura chose to continue with Starfleet instead of resigning following her time in Starfleet Academy. And why Ortegas spoke so highly of him during the memorial. We saw why in the eight episodes that Hemmer appeared in, and that was very satisfying to me.

Speaking of Ortegas, while we didn't get an episode focused on her this season, she got alot of screentime. She was in every single episode and Melissa Navia did such an amazing job playing the character. I can't wait to see more of her next season. 

My favourite character has to be Nurse Christine Chapel, played by Jess Bush. Majel Barrett was one of my favourite actresses on Star Trek when I was a kid. She was so versatile too. I mean she played Number One (Una) and Chapel on TOS, played Chapel in some of the TOS movies, played Deanna Troi's mother, Lwaxana on TNG and DS9, AND voiced the computer of every Federation starship on TOS, TAS, the movies, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, and Star Trek (2009). But, I always felt that Chapel was just there as a big middle finger to the network executives who didn't like Majel in "The Cage" and didn't get very much to do. So to see the character come back in such a big way in this series is amazing. I love her friendship with Spock this season. It's fun, but it has a little hint of romantic interest on Chapel's part, which is interesting. Especially because it appears that Spock finds her fascinating to coin a phrase.

I also love that Chapel is friends with Uhura and Ortegas in a very supportive way. I mean she's not even in Starfleet yet, but she has the respect and friendship of the Starfleet officers onboard the ship. Very similar to how Doctor Phlox had it even though he was part of the Interspecies Medical Exchange and not a member of Starfleet on Enterprise. 

Overall this was a fantastic season of television. My buddy Aaron and I have talked alot over the last few weeks about how incredibly lucky he and I are as geeks to have these quality shows coming out on a weekly basis. Sure, we aren't interested in some of them or are more interested in others, but compared to 20 years ago when we were both in high school and we had Enterprise, Smallville, Andromeda, Stargate SG-1, and Justice League only on TV, we're in geek heaven right now. And to have a Star Trek show on the air that is quality storytelling and not concerned with what the more difficult side of the fandom thinks about it is amazing. So here's to however many seasons of SNW we can get.

And that my friends is it for today and for this weekend. So I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will see you back here next week for alot more posts. Until then, take care.