I’m not sure if this is real, but I saw it surface this weekend and thought it was too amusing to pass up.
It’s supposedly some kind of disclaimer/warning/head’s up/whatever issued in 1994 by IBM for people about to get online for the first time.
Complete with a warning about language or pictures – even some of an adult nature!
Yikes! Ma, hand me the modem!
Remember the Merry Marvel Marching Society?
In the 1960s, it wasn’t enough that Marvel’s comics were the coolest to read. Marvel made sure you felt like you were part of the Marvel comics scene with the Merry Marvel Marching Society.
Created by editor Stan Lee and publisher Martin Goodman in 1964, the MMMS was a fan club for Marvel comics, basically.
For your dollar, you received a membership card, a scratch pad, sticker, a large pinback button and a 33-and-a-third record of the MMMS song sung by (allegedly) Marvel bullpen types.
I wonder how many of us joined? And how many still have their MMMS gear? (I still have my button. Somewhere.)
It’s news to no one that shared universes are the big thing in movies right now
Marvel began building its shared cinematic universe in 2008 with “Iron Man” and has announced plans to continue it through at least 2020. Not to mention Marvel’s TV entries in that shared universe, like “Agents of SHIELD,” “Agent Carter” and “Daredevil,” the latter debuting on Netflix in April as the first in a series of “street-level” hero shows that will culminate in a “Defenders” series.
Of course, DC/Warner Bros. are trying to get their superhero universe going; Sony wants a “Spider-Man” universe but I’ll believe it when I see it.
And Universal has announced a shared universe of remakes of its 1930s and 1940s monster films featuring Frankenstein, Dracula and other creatures. I’m still pondering that one for another entry here.
So the other day, a movie company that I’ve never heard of, Cinedigm, announced plans to create, of all things, a shared movie universe. But using what classic cinematic tales?
The 1950s and 1960s exploitation movies of American International Pictures.
Specifically, 10 films: “Girls in Prison,” “Viking Women and The Sea Serpent,” “The Brain Eaters,” “She-Creature,” “Teenage Caveman,” “Reform School Girl,” “The Undead,” “War of the Colossal Beast,” “The Cool and the Crazy” and “The Day the World Ended.”
Strangely enough, I like this idea.
Marvel has this kind of thing perfected, down to an art and a science. I’m not sure DC’s superheroes will ever really come together on the big screen because of, I believe, a wrong-headed approach that seems more like Warner Bros. is ashamed of comic books.
But the AIP films, some of which were originally directed by low-budget auteur Roger Corman?
That’s genius.
Not because the company says it intends to shoot all 10 movies back-to-back from recently-completed scripts. Not because remaking these old AIP classics for cable TV a while back worked so well.
Because these dimly-remembered movies are perfect fodder for the remake machine.
Somebody once said that if you were going to remake a movie, don’t remake a classic. How could a remake of “Psycho” possibly work? (It didn’t.)
But with the AIP flicks, most people won’t be comparing them and, unless the remakes are horrible, they won’t be comparing them unfavorably.
And the idea of a universe shared by the monstrous, mutated “Colossal Beast” and the juvenile delinquents of “The Cool and the Crazy?” How can that possibly work?
The producers say the movies will share “a recurring cast of antiheroes, monsters and bad girls.” I can’t say that’s a bad idea and I base that on what Marvel has done with its movies.
Really, consider how improbable it might have looked, 10 years ago, to propose a shared universe that would include a bone-crunching political thriller, a good-natured space opera, a Nordic fantasy world and a rampaging monster movie. Yet “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” the “Thor” movies and the Hulk’s appearances all worked.
Who’s to say those juvenile delinquents won’t end up fighting alien invaders to big box-office returns?
Stranger things have happened.
Further proof the geeks have inherited the Earth: “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons,” a typically wonderful second-season episode of “Community,” which originally aired in 2011.
Other than a few melodramatic references in old TV movies, I’m not sure the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons has ever had the broad awareness it has now, with references – sometimes uncomplimentary – on a variety of shows on the air in recent years.
There was almost certainly no D&D story on TV as great, as true-to-life and as funny as this “Community” episode, though.
In “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons,” the Greendale study group plays D&D to befriend Neil, a fellow student with the less-than-charitable nickname “Fat Neil.” The study group, with a very shaky sense of the game, begins to play only to be interrupted by Pierce (Chevy Chase), the usually-unlikable group member. Pierce is outraged that he’s been excluded and forces his way into the game.
What the gang doesn’t suspect, however, is that Pierce has a plan.
The episode has genuine heart, but it’s also one of the funniest entries in the show. From Abed’s strict adherence to his role of Dungeon Master to Annie’s mimed performance as Hector the Well-Endowed to the relish of Pierce’s revenge … oh my gosh, so much goodness.
Shirley’s reaction to Chang’s “dark elf” makeup: “So we’re just going to ignore this hate crime?” Priceless.
You’re welcome.
Merry Christmas!
(cover of Famous Monsters 48)
Love this.
Artist Mauricio Abril imagines just how much Spider-Man wants to play with his colleagues the Avengers.
Alas, Marvel sold the rights to Sony and Spidey is in his own playground.
Maybe someday.
In the meantime, check out Abril’s wonderful art.
Here’s an ad I remember even if I didn’t have the product it advertised.
The Haunted House Mystery Bank looked cool in the ad and videos I’ve seen online suggested it was indeed cool. You place a penny in a particular spot and the doors open and a ghostly figure comes out and grabs the coin.
The bank was battery operated and made of metal, but I love the ad – which appeared in comics in the 1960s – itself. The artwork is cool and primitive and the copy is appropriately breathless and jokey at the same time.
Online sources indicate this was a “Disney Haunted Mansion” bank, but I’m not sure about that. Check out that ad. No mention of Disney. You’d think they would have marketed the product with the Disney name.
That price, by the way, separated a lot of us out of the possibility of buying this bank. How many kids in the 1960s had six bucks for something from a comic book ad? How many kids had parents who would let their kid send off six bucks?
One of my favorite scenes.
One of my favorite movies.
May the Fourth Be With You.
So the Internets were ablaze yesterday with this announcement, confirmation of what we already knew.
And the picture above got released.
Reaction was mixed:
Cool, another “Star Wars” movie.
Thank god, another “Star Wars” movie that ISN’T a prequel.
Too many white people in that picture.
Too many male people in that picture.
Is Kenny Baker inside that R2 inside that crate?
Here’s the press release:
The Star Wars team is thrilled to announce the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII.
Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film.
Director J.J. Abrams says, “We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again. We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud.”
Star Wars: Episode VII is being directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and Abrams. Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk are producing, and John Williams returns as the composer. The movie opens worldwide on December 18, 2015.
My reaction? That announcement has commas where it doesn’t need them and has no commas where it does need them.
But I’m glad they’re making another (several, actually) live action movies. “Star Wars” needs new blood, new fans. “The Clone Wars” animated series and, yes, even the prequel movies, reached new fans who weren’t even born when the first movies came out.
So we’ll see what happens in December 2015.
keithroysdon 