The Jacked Kirby Podcast: Episode #3 - The Cosmic Kirby

On this weeks episode of the Jacked Kirby Podcast hosts Mike D and Tommy take to the far flung reaches of outer space to discuss THE COSMIC KIRBY!!!! The team is joined on this episode by longtime CCD contributors Al Accettura and Joey Armao as they discuss the many forays of Kirby into Outer Space... from his days on the Challengers of the Unknown, through the FF/Thor years at Marvel all the way through his 4th World Saga at DC!!!!

You can find an embedded player with the episode and show notes after the jump!  

Please click here to SUBSCRIBE and leave a REVIEW!

Guests: Mike D, Tommy Lombardozzi, Al Accettura and Joey Armao

Show Notes:

Episode Recap:

(Start - 3:00) - Intro to the Cosmic Kirby and this episodes crew

(3:01 - 5:00) - Why are people so god damn LITERAL about Sci-Fi?

(5:01 - 10:15) - The early cosmic years for Kirby - Challengers of the Unknown and Sky Masters are Kirby's first forays into space. Breaking down the team members and how Jack used these projects to launch his cosmic ideas to a general public who were intrigued and scared by the frontiers of space.

(10:16 - 12:30) -  How much was the real life space program influenced by sci-fi and comics? Al reminisces about John F Kennedy Jr's love of comics and how it may have influenced his dad JFK's Nasa policies. Also were the makers of the Rocky Horror Picture Show influenced by Kirby's HIM character when designing Rocky? 

(12:31 - 14:05) - Just how amazing were Kirby's visuals when describing/illustrating space? His depictions of the universe, space and of course his signature visual representation of energy Kirby Krackle!

(14:06 - 16:05) - How did Jack end up back at Marvel (technically Atlas comics)?

(16:06 - 19:08) - Anthologies Galore.... Monsters, Sci - Fi  and more Monsters abound, giving birth to some of his most recognizable creature creations: Groot, Goom, Googam, ZZZaTaXXX, Monstroso, Kraa... hahahaaha! Also we talk the upcoming MONSTERBUS 2 volume set from Marvel!

(19:09 - 24:10) - The FF and how it really LAUNCHED (see what I did there?) Kirby into his best space stories. How were these four qualified to go to space???? Galactus choice in pants, The Negative Zone, the teams powers from Cosmic Rays and other key FF related points

( 24:11 - 31:35) - Behold... ASGARD! Jack's Thor run, and how Jack actually used a back up story (Tales of Asgard to really develop the cosmic background of Thor and all its mythology! Plus his famous back up bonus features. Also... photo collages!

(31:36 - 40:55) - Welcome BACK to DC Jack! Editor Carmine Infintino poaches Jack and brings him to DC. he offers him pretty much ANY book he wants... so jack picks Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen? This is the bridge to the 4th World... New Gods, Mister miracle and the Forever People!

( 40:56 - 47:30 ) - Back to Marvel... and introducing the Eternals! Jack introduces the Eternals, the Celestials and also Jack's Silver Surfer. He also does both the Treasury Edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the 2001 ongoing series.... in which we are introduced to Machine Man!

(47:31 - 51:00) - How did Jack disguise the fact that Black Panther, Devil Dinosaur and Kamandi were really outer space/alien books? Even though they don't seem to be...    

(51:01 - 55:05) - Captain Victory & the Galactic Rangers & Hunger Dogs.... which brings us to Super Powers!!!!    

(55:06 - end) - The wrap up! How were todays biggest artists in comics influenced by Kirby?

Outro Music of the Week: Space Oddity by David Bowie (1969)

This weeks Kirby Konnections:

Kirby does the Challengers

John F Kennedy & John John Kennedy

Groot from Planet X

The FF in space...

New Gods #1, Orion and his Astro- skates

Behold the Silver Surfer

Infinity Man from Forever People

A Celestial from Jack's Eternals run

Alien tinged page from Black Panther!

Captain Victory & the Galactic Ramgers 

The Jacked Kirby Podcast: Episode #2 - The First Family of Comics

Welcome to this weeks episode of the Jacked Kirby podcast. Today we are tackling a subject near and dear to any fan of Jack Kirby... THE FANTASTIC FOUR!!!! The First Family of Marvel... hell, of ALL COMICS is an interesting topic to analyze. So hosts Tommy & Mike D welcome James West and Reverend Sal into the mix to offer their unique perspective on the team and all they have meant to comics!

 Check out the embedded player, show notes and much more after the jump...

Please click here to SUBSCRIBE and leave a REVIEW!

Show Notes:

Guests: Mike D, Tommy Lombardozzi, Reverend Sal and James West

Episode Recap:

(Start - 5:30) Mike and Tommy introduce this weeks show and the topic of the FF!

(5:31 -  9:50) Introduction of this weeks guests James West and Reverend Sal 

(9:55 - 12:00) Reverend Sal schools the gang on reprinted issues, one of the ONLY ways to read old stories from back issues back in the 1970s.  

(12:01 - 14:45) Concepts from Challengers of the Unknown pop up in the FF, and who was responsible for that 4 on the chest of the team?

(14:46 - 19:30) The rebirth of superhero comics courtesy of the Fantastic Four.

(19:31 - 23:30) How did Jack and Stan critique society through the trials and tribulations of their characters like the FF, X-men, Black Panther. Did a revolutionary group really take their name from Kirby's creation? 

(23:30 - 26:30) How were the first few issues of the series SO Groundbreaking???? How many amazing concepts could be introduced in one book???

(26:31 - 34:45) The FF Annuals 1-6 contain more groundbreaking things than any series in the Marvel Universe! 

(34:46 - 38:20) Enter Joe Sinnott!!!!

(38:21 - 43:30) Key contributions to the Marvel Universe in the pages of the FF (Kree, Skrulls, Attlian, The heat pattern on the Human Torch, the brow on the Thing, 

(43:31 - 55:45 ) The wrap up,,,, what does it all mean to the members of the panel!

Outro Music of the Week: Hard as a Rock by AC/DC (1995)

This weeks Kirby Konnections:

70s reprints of the classic 60s stories!

FF #1 - The team in action for the first time

The Return of the Sub Mariner

Annual #2 - The true origin of Dr Doom 

Annual #3 - The Wedding of Sue and Reed Richards... and Doom plotting to ruin it!

FF #issue89 - Jack' signature heat lines of the Human Torch

'Doomed' - The Untold Story of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four

I am very proud of my DVD collection... I have built it over the years since I bought my first DVD in 2000 and it is quite impressive. I have a ton of imports, rare movies, and the such... but the highlight of my collection (especially in my nerd cred portion of the collection) has to be my bootleg copy of the low budget Fantastic Four movie that was made by Roger Corman. Corman has long been known as the 'schlock king of Hollywood', a dude who has made movies out of peanuts and has had tons of success. He is one of the greatest producers/directors of all time when it comes to making magic out of a nothing budget... but that was definitely not the case when he took on one of Marvel's greatest super hero teams. Back in the days before all the current Marvel Cinematic Universe success the company had fallen on hard times and licensed out most of its character stables to various production companies. Most of those deals had expiration dates attached to them: If the company purchased the rights to a character than they had 'X' amount of years to put out a film. In order for the companies to retain the rights to the films they would have to have something constantly in the works (either filming or in development). Some studios never made a product, some made a film and then cut their losses allowing the rights to go back to Marvel, and others have produced products and maintain their licenses (much to the chagrin of Marvel like the X-Men, Spidey, etc). The German film production company Neue Constantin that owned the rights to the Fantsitic Four for numerous years in the late 80s/early 90s had never been able to get the ball rolling on a film. So in a bold move the company teamed up with Corman to make a $1 million dollar version of a Fantastic Four movie just before the deadline expired. By creating the film the company was then able to hold on to the rights and buy more time in order to possibly make another FF movie at a future date. This angered Marvel, and they paid the company to never release the film... And so begins one of the greatest debates in B movie history! Was the movie made just to keep the rights or as a intended low budget/high return venture? Did Marvel really pay for the movie to not be released? Was Corman and Neue Constantin in on the squashing of the film, all the while never telling the cast or crew? And how is it possible that such a terrible version of a movie could have been made yet they got so many things correct in the production (The Thing's costume looks great considering the low budget, and Doom is dope!)? All of these questions have lingered for years, especially when you consider that Neue Constanttin retained the rights to the FF and later produced the two big budget FF movies we got in the mid 2000s. But now we may finally get some answers in the form of a definitive documentary: Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four is about to be released!

Click after the jump for more info:

Here is the trailer:



Here is the 'Why' section from the Doomed website:

There are 336 names in the end crawl credits of the 1994 film, ‘The Fantastic Four’.  And though owners of the bootleg version of the film may appreciate them, the artists and craftspeople who created the movie have never been properly recognized.

And that’s too bad.

‘The Fantastic Four’ has never been viewed legally by anyone in the world, other than those directly involved in the production. The negative presumably sits, to this day, on some shelf in some facility, both gathering dust and fated to become it.

So – what are we going to do about that?

For starters, we have interview commitments from EVERY principal cast and crew member. And based on the pre-interviews we’ve conducted, this documentary is going to be explosive!

-When did the cast and crew discover the film would be shelved?
-What changed from script to production based on character rights (just who *is* The Jeweler?), budget, and time constraints?
-How much control did Marvel wield over the movie? Before it was made and after it was shelved?
-Is a legitimate release still possible?
-Who are today’s A-list actors who auditioned but didn’t make the cut?

For the first time in over 20 years, the TRUE account of this controversial cult classic will be revealed!

And it’s a hell of a story!

A to Z Blogger Challenge 2013: Day 6 - F Is For Fantastic Four

If you are following my work here during the A to Z Blogger Challenge than you are beginning to notice a theme about the movies I am choosing. For F I decided to go with Fantastic Four... not because it is a great film (I don't dislike it... I actually think it is pretty good), but because of the scalding hot actress that occupies the lead role. Alba... Jessica Alba. Good lord... when I heard she was cast as the Invisible Woman Sue Richards I immediately began to hate the idea. Not that she wouldn't make a great Sue Richards... just that she would be spending a whole lot of time invisible, which seems a bit counterproductive to me. How are you going to have such a beautiful actress invisible for half the film? In most super hero movies I can't wait for the film to get going so that the heroes can get their powers and get started being heroes. But in this film I wanted the origin story to go on forever!!! Even though we got Alba in the role twice, I am eager to see who Josh Trank casts in the lead... but for now, we will always have the stunning Alba to disappear before our eyes! You can see more participants in the A to Z Blogger Challenge by clicking here, and you can see Alba's pics after the jump...

The 1975 Fantastic Four Radio Show... Featuring Bill Murray?

Thanks to my main man Joe Fletch I was sent a really cool link to the Youtube page of Mr. Walther PPK that features numerous episodes of the long forgotten Fanatsic Four radio show from 1975. These stories are often word for word read from the pages of the comic books, and there is some really cool stories here featuring characters like Sub Mariner, Ant Man, and many others. But one of the coolest things has to be the casting of a pre-Saturday Night Live Bill Murray to voice the Human Torch! This is an added plus, but truth be told all the voices bring a great set of stories to the audio ear... this is a great way to acclimate younger children to comics and build up their familiarity with the characters for the future. You can watch all the episodes by clicking here (25 episodes in all), and after the jump you can see Part I & II of Attack of the Mole Man featuring Mr. Ghostbuster himself....

Part I:





Part II:

Remember That Time That Tommy Lombardozzi Designed Character Cut Outs For The Fantastic Four Movie Premiere?

I have a friend that works as a producer at MTV. Back in the Spring of 2005, when I was pretty new at doing freelance illustration, he had asked me if I wanted to do drawings of the Fantastic Four that would adorn the set of their upcoming Fantastic Four movie premiere special. Of course I said yes!


The idea was that my drawings would be blown up, life-sized, and then made into big placards that would accompany the actors playing the specific parts. I was excited because I was going to be able to go to the filming of the show and meet "The Commish" himself, Michael Chiklis! (I was also a fan of his because he played Belushi in the not-very-good adaptation of Bob Woodward's Belushi biography, 'Wired'. I didn't like the movie, but I thought Chiklis did a great job.) Plus, I'd get to meet that sweet piece, Jessica Alba. MING!

Click after the jump for more of the story and the pics...



Anyway, I worked on the drawings for a few weeks, went to the MTV art offices here and there, and finished up. The art director liked 'em, so, all was good. I got paid (a pretty good sum that got chopped in half after they took the fucking freelance taxes out! Crap!) and I awaited the next step.

Several weeks later, they called me and told me that they'd decided to use photographs of the actors in character instead of my traditionally drawn comicbook-style FF. Made sense, I guess... but I didn't get to go to the show. Bah. So, in the end, I made a few bucks and got this not-very-exciting story out of the experience. Well, enjoy the drawings, kids.

There are two Things... which one do you prefer?  

~TL

'I'd Buy That...As a Tee!' Vol 26

Always on the look out for inspiring art... emblazoned across the chest of humanity. Here's some of the t-shirts I have my eye on to do just the trick but, there's only one problem....they aren't for sale yet! Please click the links below to the Threadless.com voting pages for each and give these beauties '5' ratings so I can throw 'em on my charge card one day.

**Please click READ MORE below..for Mo' Tees...Mo' Tees....Mo' Tees!**

'The Doctor vs. Sheldon Cooper' Geek Alert! Geek Alert! Geek Alert!

You PUNKS will love this Marvel comics/Ramones band mash-up 'Fantastic One..Two...Three...FOUR' !! (I don't wanna be bu-ried...in a Pet...Cem-e-teh-he-ry!)

'Hurry Up Someone is Coming'....you know you've been there. Vending machine, arm up the slot, grabbing what you can with your friends before someone spots you. This is that...only with zombies.

'QR Space Invader'

The 80's meet Generation-Y in this clever, bar code alternative, Atari attack.

Star Trek and Star Wars purests will hate this 'Millenium Enterprise' mash-up...but, I say job well done. Would love to see a Romulan/Slave-1 mash-up as well ...and all the characters that go along with this otherworldly abomination.

if you remember buying a ton of books from that 'Scholastic Reader' flyer they'd hand out in school each month as a kid, than you'll remember Clifford...the Big Red Dog. This homage does that big lug justice...after death. The attention to the storybook artist's style is impeccable....and just look at the size of his turd. I give you...... 'Clifford the Big Dead Dog' 

'The Bat City' Arkham...within the silhouette of the bat signal? I'd wear the bat-shit out of this tee. (check out the teensy weensy Batman atop the building!)

The king has returned....whoops! 'There Goes the King'

'Adventure' offers the top half of the Indiana Jones Underoos that never was. Put some bottoms on will you...Indy hates snakes!

'Toadette Pin-Up'...It's apparent that Toad from the Super Mario Bros. was a chubby chaser. Who isn't?! Mario, go find YOUR princess in another castle. This one's aaaallll mine!

By the gods...I love this 'Olympian Free-For-All' ! Mythological titans in the artistic style of the 'Power Puff Girls'? By Hera...Yes! YES!! (Click on the link for full image)

Finally, a tie for my favorite tee this week....

Thunder...Thunder Thundercats...They're Greeeeeat! 'Breakfast of Omens' successfully mashes up the iconic Kellogg's cereal with one of my favorite childhood adventure cartoons.

And......

'The 8bit Hurt Locker' which successfully mashes up the successful Nintendo/Hudson title 'Bomberman' with an iconic sequence the gripping Kathryne Bigelow film 'The Hurt Locker'! Steady there...hot shot!

Til next time tee-m! Remember to vote!