DC Comics is poised to make some noise in some of the other venues that the other comics companies have had success in (movies, TV, etc) and we here at the CCD Podcast thought we should discuss it. So we brought our good friend Anthony Marino from Brooklyn One to join in with Jedi Rob & Mike D and discuss the current state of the DC Universe. We touch on upcoming movies, the shows already on TV and ones to come, and even a bit of comics. DC is definitely on the rise. We got a lot to say.... so jump on in and join us!!!!
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“Just when they think they got the answers, I change the questions.”
“Rowdy” Roddy Piper was a bad man. You didn’t have to watch him long to learn that; he’d tell you straight to your face. “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka, Greg Valentine, Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, it didn’t matter to the Hot Rod who you were, how good you thought you were, what you’d done in the ring, on TV, whatever. If you crossed his path, if you fell into Piper’s Pit, he would tear you a new one. Or he’d clunk you with a coconut; that worked, too.
Read more after the jump:
That sort of confidence comes with the knowledge that you can back it up. Most professional wrestlers are athletes, but only a few have ever been Golden Gloves boxing champions. Roddy was. He was also a black belt, too, in case you wanted another credential. What made him a master in the ring, though, was his psychology. Roddy Piper knew, better than nearly any man to ever grace the squared circle, how to get inside someone’s head. Ask the Sheepherders: how do you approach a man so crazy that he’s willing to smash a glass beer bottle on his head just to prove that he can? Ask the Guerrero family: how do you earn respect from a man so disrespectful he offers to play your ancestral home’s national anthem on the bagpipes… and plays La Cucaracha?
Roddy Piper came up in an era where titles didn’t change hands much. Looking at the reigns of the great champions of the ‘70s and ‘80s, there wasn’t much opportunity to secure a great run of glory at the top, but Piper would not be denied. In Jim Crockett Promotions, he was Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion twice, Television Champion twice, and US Heavyweight Champion once. Across the various other arms of the NWA, he won eight heavyweight championships, twelve tag team championships with ten partners, and even the NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship. When he finally joined the WWF, he won their world tag team championship with yet another partner, the legendary Ric Flair, and the Intercontinental Championship.
His legacy of gold, however, pales in comparison to his legacy of recognition by his peers. He was inducted into the Cauliflower Alley Club, was acknowledged by Pro Wrestling Illustrated as Most Hated Wrestler twice, Most Inspirational, Most Popular, and the winner of Match of the Year in 1985. They ranked him as the 17th greatest singles wrestler of the PWI years in 2003. Wrestling Observer voted him Best on Interviews three years running, Best Heel in 1984 and 1985, and inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 1996. He would join the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005, and the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2007. He was even tabbed by Vince McMahon to main event Wrestlemania 1, and the Nassau Coliseum card of Wrestlemania 2. On top of all of these, in 2012, the WWE announced their list of the 50 greatest villains in wrestling history. Given their ownership, they’d have been forgiven for selecting Mr. McMahon as the greatest villain, the prime motive force for the Attitude Era. Given the flash and dazzle of his 16 World Title reigns, they’d have been entirely justified to select Ric Flair. Given his position as the first true heel in history, the model for all others to look up to, they’d have upset nobody by naming Gorgeous George… but no. They considered the entirety of wrestling history, and they said that the greatest of all time… was Rowdy Roddy Piper.
Roddy Piper was many things in his career. A sneaky, underhanded heel, a supremely confident defender of the old school against the influence of celebrity in wrestling, one of the first wrestlers to become a movie star… but what he never was, could never be, was predictable. Roddy Piper always kept us guessing, and always kept us watching.
In the end, he changed the question again. Now, the only one left is “could there ever be another man quite like Roddy Piper?”
Editor's Note: This is my personal favorite Piper's Pit.... so I had to drop it in on the end of a great article from J.C.! Enjoy ~ Mike D
Hello CCD-ites! It's been awhile, but your boy JoeyEsq is back with another article about 80's toys to cure your Cultural Compulsive Disorder... if your particular disorder has to do with 80's toys that is. Now normally I write a feature here called "Takin' You Back... Way Back" in which I illuminate you on a forgotten yet totally awesome toy line from the 1980's, but in this one I'm taking a bit of a different approach. Today I'm focusing on a topic that has kinda fascinated me since I was young - toys based on movies that were totally not for kids. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking any of the movies below. In fact I love most of them. It's just kind of bizarre how many toy properties there are out there that were based on something no child had any business seeing. Check 'em out after the jump!
Rambo - At some point in 1985, some executive in Coleco's toy division decided that a movie about a former Vietnam P.O.W. with severe post traumatic stress disorder would make the perfect basis for a cartoon and line of children's toys. This might sound like an insane idea, but you have to keep in mind, cocaine was a very popular drug in the 1980's. Now its true the toys were based more on the sequel than the original First Blood movie, but objectively speaking neither First Blood, which was a psychological thriller nor Rambo, which was violent as fuck, are anything a 6 year old should be watching, much less playing with toys derivative of them. But, Coleco ignored that blatant logic and thus Rambo and the Force of Freedom were born.
Coleco trying its hand at a boys military-themed toy was likely an attempt to cash-in on the popularity of G.I. Joe, but I still have to wonder how an idea like this gets past the "laughed at in the board room" phase. Rambo murders the fuck out of people in those movies! You can't just repackage him as the leader of a G.I. Joe-type team, make a colorful enemy team for him to fight (S.A.V.A.G.E. - Specialist-Administrators of Vengeance, Anarchy and Global Extortion - I'm gonna sit here and giggle about that for a minute... hehe "specialist-administrators") and think that makes it ok. In any event, the toys and cartoon didn't last long enough to be controversial, as the whole thing was wrapped up by late 1986. I had a few of the figures, and definitely used their weapons for my C.O.P.S. figures at some point. Oh, and I also had the S.A.V.A.G.E. headquarters, which was cool as shit... to use with other, superior toy lines.
My Joes got a lot of use outta this thing
Oh, and in an interesting bit of trivia, the Rambo toys have another connection to G.I. Joe aside from attempting to sponge off of its success. See, in 1985 Stallone was in negotiations to have Rocky Balboa join the G.I. Joe team! The idea got so far that Larry Hama actually wrote a bio for him which appeared in G.I. Joe Order of Battle #2. Marvel ended up printing a retraction in issue #3 because, instead of licensing his likeness to Hasbro, Stallone went with Coleco and the Rambo line. Way to back a winner, Sly. Also, as a result of the deal falling through, the slot of celebrity member of the Joe team ended up going to William "Refrigerator" Perry.
Robocop - Not to be outdone by Coleco, in 1989 Kenner said I'll see your adult themes and ultra-violence, and raise you a dystopian future, social commentary, brief nudity, drugs, attempted rape and whores! Robocop was not a kids movie by any stretch of the imagination, but did that stop Kenner from rolling out Robocop and the Ultra Police? Hell no it didn't.
I wasn't a big fan of these toys. They had the articulation of a Star Wars figure, and by 1989, G.I. Joe had shown us all how an action figure should be able to move. Aside from that, the backs of the figures were taken up with a dumb cap-firing mechanism. I always hated gimmickry like this. It ruined the aesthetics of the figure, and quite frankly, I can make my own gun noises thank you very much. The villains looked like a bunch of rejects from Mad Max - I wanted a Clarence Boddicker figure, dammit! (Now that I think about it, I was 8 when Robocop came out... I NEVER should have been allowed to see that movie! Great job, parents!).Another thing I hated was that Kenner renamed ED-209 "ED-260". This really annoyed me as kid; and still kinda does, for no reason I can adequately explain. Being fair, the ED-260 toy at least was pretty cool looking. Moving on...
Police Academy - Another Kenner gem from the late 80's, only this time instead of making a toy line based on a violent gorefest, they went with a property known for it's raunchy humor and which featured plenty of naked lady boobs. Sure by the 4th or 5th movie, the series had degenerated from genuinely funny and adult-themed to completely over-the-top goofy, but still, the original Police Academy movie might have been the first place I ever saw boobs! It definitely wasn't something the target audience for these toys should be watching, or would even understand for that matter. But, they had a guy who could make crazy noises with his mouth (two if you count Bobcat Goldthwaite) so I guess its all good.
The toys themselves weren't all that great, as you can see above. Looking at these now, I can't even imagine a kid being interested in playing with these. I mean what are they supposed to do, reenact the scene where Sweetchuck falls down? Or where Tackleberry and Jones have a wacky misunderstanding? Or have the gang play pranks on Captain Harris? Fuck outta here. Ooh I know, you can play out the scene where that guy is tearing up the beach in his truck and causes those topless sunbathers to stand up and expose their boobs! No wait, you can't. They didn't make those figures. And speaking of which, where's Lasard? Where's Fackler and Hooks and Callahan? Where's the Blue Oyster playset? This toy line sucked.. and that Flung Hi figure up there is racist as fuck, even by late 80's standards.
Conan - Finally we come to Conan. I was sort of reluctant to include this one, since the fantasy setting kinda removes a layer of inappropriateness off the bat, but still Conan the Barbarian is super violent. pretty fucking gory, and contains whole bunch of sex and nudity. And yes, they toned down (ruined) things for Conan the Destroyer, and yes the toys were more so based on the comic book than the movies, but still its all related. and these guys belong on the list.
The figures, like most figures Remco produced in the early 80's, were designed to be compatible with He-Man (cough knockoffs cough). Funny thing about that is for the longest time, the urban legend was that Mattel originally intended to make Conan the Barbarian figures, but when the Mattel executives saw how violent the movie was, they backed out of the deal and then the concept evolved into He-Man. However, this rumor has recently been pretty soundly debunked. There WAS a licensing deal in place in 1981, but Mattel terminated it right around the time He-Man was released in early 1982. Conan Productions actually sued Mattel over it and lost because the development of the He-Man concept actually went all the way back to 1980, predating the agreement by quite some time. Despite that, most of the evidence suggests that the original designers and conceptualizers of He-Man were at least somewhat influenced by (borrowed heavily from) Conan; particularly the artwork of Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo; both of whom produced many awesome Conan and Conan-like paintings.
No, nooo... you see, our barbarian is blonde...
So there you have it, four toy lines that have no business existing, based on their source material. I was actually toying with including Ghostbusters and Gremlins in this list too, but changed my mind. I still argue that Ghostbusters is not a kids' movie, what with all the swearing and smoking, but compared to the violence and nudity on this list, it's a friggin Disney cartoon. Gremlins on the other hand probably does belong on here for the violence, over the top and comedic as it may be. But, aside from a few plush Mogwai and pvc figurines, it didn't actually have a proper toy line at all, and I'm not here to talk about stuffed dolls.
JoeyEsq is a lawyer by day, frustrated writer and artist by night. When he's not lawyering, you can find him battering criminals within inches of their lives on the streets of Hell's Kitchen or writing on his own blog, Perpetual Dissatisfaction
The CCD Podcast constantly finds new parts of pop culture to tap for possible episode topics. One that we feel we talk about ALOT but not in its own show is the Comic industry. Lots have changed in the comic industry since DC & Marvel ruled the roost through the 60s/70s/80s. A bunch of the smaller companies (IDW/Image/Dark Horse) have become major players in the print comics game. The Walking Dead is just as well known as Spider Man. And EVERY company has things being adapted for TV & Movies (I never thought I would see a proper Captain America film in my life, let alone a Kick Ass film!!!!) We brought back our two favorite comic book elder statesman Pat & Gary to join up with Jedi Rob to discuss just how huge the sales in the comic industry has become, how large the influence of comics has reached into other mediums of pop culture, and what do digital sales of comics mean for the future of the industry. It's going to be a good one.... enjoy the ride!!!!
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One of the secret loves of the CCD crew is professional wrestling and all the drama that goes along with it.... it really is like a soap opera for males age 13-40! There is so much going on in the current WWE that we enlisted the help of wrestling lifers Joey Esq and Steve Resk to assist Jedi Rob Martin in an attempt to break down what the hell is going on right now followjng the Battleground PPV. They also talk about what they might expect to happen later on after the upcoming Summer Slam in Brooklyn NY. It is going to be one hell of a ride!
Make sure you check out The Super Show unpredictable card game (created by the one and only Steve Resk, guest of this podcast!). It is a lot of fun for any card based game players and wrestling fans alike!!!
Also check out the newly launched CCD.NYC which is the new home for all your Cultural Compulsive Disorders... The CCD Podcast, our latest editorial columns and video segments, and all the new art work of the CC Art & Supply Co. We will be launching any day.... keep checking in!
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No matter what at some point in peoples lives music plays an integral part in developing their identity. This identity sticks with them throughout their lives, and while musical taste may change (for better or worse...lol) as we get older, the one thing that remains are those seminal albums that formed us as music lovers. Album covers have always played a huge part in this. The album cover is the most universally recognizable tie in for fans of an album. Some might like certain songs, or some may argue which album they like best from an artist. But the one uniform thing all people share would be the album covers. They tie it all together for everyone. While this may not be the case anymore due to most people consuming digital music (who knows what the newly released album covers are anymore?!?), for us growing up in the pre-digital revolution these album covers were works of art that we will cherish for ever. So we decided to make that the theme of our next group art show, The CCD Record Collection... and also thought it would make a great topic for a round table podcast discussion! So make sure to join us on July 25th at the art show if you can (click the above link for all the details!) and join Rob, Mike D and Tommy as they head down a album cover filled memory lane!!!
As an added treat, here are a few of the album covers we mention in the podcast... enjoy:
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So shared universes in the movies is all the rage now... pictures keep flying out post SDCC of the X-Men characters, talks about an expansive Ghostbusters & Transformers universes are buzzing all over the 'net, and the dummies over at Fox are even talking about crossing over X-Men and Fantastic Four in like 2020!!! Thanks alot Marvel... if they weren't so good at their job at connecting their movies all of these other studios wouldn't be trying to do the same. So join Jedi Rob and Mike D as we break down some of the expanded and shared universes on the horizon....
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