Popeye: "War Of The Nightclubs"

As I reported in a previous post, Popeye will be returning to comic books in an all-new series from IDW.  To celebrate this, I thought I would post an original Popeye short story I wrote for the Official Popeye Fanclub a few years ago.  In this story, I wanted to combine the best elements of E.C. Segar's comic strips and Max Fleischer's cartoons, a path I hope IDW will also take (but leave out the weak attempts to be topical, like the "Iron Giant" line, something I wish I could edit out).  Special thanks to Mike Brooks, president of the Official Popeye Fanclub, and to Donnie Pitchford, who did the artwork for the story.  Donnie is also currently the writer-artist of the new Lum and Abner comic strip, which everyone should check out, and request their local newspaper to pick up for their Sunday funnies.

To see the scans in a larger size, just click on each page, then left click on the image and right click "Properties". On the pop up, copy and paste the address (URL) in a new tab or window. Then click on the new image to make it larger.   Simple, huh?

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What If Elvis Lived?

I'm a lifelong Elvis fan, and one of the things I've often thought about is, what if Elvis lived into the 1980s and 90s. What kind of music would he have recorded? If you look at his evolving styles of the previous decades, it may give you an idea of where he was headed. When he started out at Sun Records in the mid 1950s, he was pure rockabilly: a simple blend of blues and country.  By time he signed to RCA, his repertoire expanded in favor of harder, blues based rock 'n roll and doo-wop inspired ballads.

After his stint in the Army, he took on a softer pop sound, though still laced with some harder blues.  His first post-Army album, Elvis Is Back! is one of the greatest rock albums in history, highlighted by a pair of blues tracks, "Reconsider Baby" and "Like A Baby".  During the "Hollywood Years" of the 1960s, his movie soundtrack albums were pure bubblegum. In 1967, Elvis got back to his blues based rock 'n roll roots at a recording session that featured Jerry Reed on lead guitar. The next year, he made his famous "1968 Comeback Special" which highlighted blues and gospel performances. He followed that in the next year with what could be considered a pure soul and blues album, From Elvis In Memphis.  From there he went to Las Vegas with a Country rock sound.  As the 1970s rolled on, his sound became more Country, although he still dabbled in some isolated blues style tracks such as "If You Talk In Your Sleep" and "Got My Mojo Working".  By the time of his death in 1977, America was at the height of a 1950s revival, and Elvis was releasing many 1950s inspired tracks, such as "Little Darlin'", "Way Down", and "Pledging My Love".

My own personal speculation is, in the late 1970s and through the 1980s, Elvis would have adopted a rhythm and blues sound not unlike The Blues Brothers, or perhaps The J. Geils Band, perhaps with some rockabilly mixed in, as it was having a revival at this time thanks to the Stray Cats.  He would have dropped the full orchestra and string section he had been using on his albums and concerts throughout the 1970s, and would have revamped his band to include a four piece horn section.  Perhaps, after John Belushi died, Elvis may have even tapped members of the Blues Brothers Band for his own band.  The line up may have been something like Scotty Moore, bandleader and guitar; Matt Murphy, lead guitar; Floyd Cramer, piano; Booker T. Jones, Hammond organ; Donald Dunn, bass; Ronnie Tutt, drums; James Cotton, harmonica; and the horn section: Alan Rubin, Tom Scott, Tom Malone, and Lou Marini; and The Jordanaires on background vocals.

Also gone would be the jeweled caped jumpsuits that signified the 1970s. In the 1980s, he would have gone back to performing in bright color sport coats, as he did in the 1950s, and would have trimmed his hair and sideburns back to the style he wore on the 1968 Comeback Special.

In the 1990s, I think Elvis would have moved on from his rhythm and blues sound, and would have taken on more of a Country pop sound that became popular in that decade under the brand name "Young Country".  But the difference with Elvis would be, I would think, he would make it a little more bluesy and perhaps even have a slight grunge edge, unlike the typical "Young Country" artists of that era.  He would let his hair go slightly gray with shorter 1950s era sideburns, and his sport coats would be in darker colors.

By the late 1990s and into the 2000s, I think Elvis would be performing in tuxedos and his sound would be more middle of the road pop, but still with a slight rockabilly or blues edge to it. I think he would also be embracing the doo-wop revival that began at this time, and is still going today.

The new Man Of Steel revealed

Warner Brothers released the first image of Henry Cavill as Superman for the upcoming movie, The Man Of Steel.

I really like this. Infinitely better than the Brandon Routh costume. The dork in me will point out the "S" emblem is very retro, looking like the one from the costumes worn by Kirk Alyn (the serials) and George Reeves (the TV show). Also the design on the sleeve wrists look just like the artwork from Superman's first appearance in 1938's "Action Comics" #1 (the wrist design disappeared after that one issue). The colors are a little darker than the traditional comics, but it still looks "correct", unlike the hues used on the Superman Returns costume.  My only complaint would be I think they went overboard on the scale texture. I really hope the all-yellow "S" is on the back of the cape. Also the composition of the photo itself, of Superman in front of an over sized safe door, is similar to one of the panels from "Action Comics" #1.  This tells me director Zach Snyder will not be emulating the Christopher Nolan Batman films (a series I'm not too fond of) of shoehorning a superhero into an ultra-realistic setting, but may be going the Sam Raimi Spider-Man route of painstakingly recreating the earliest comics. There also seems to be a slight Tim Burton feel to the photo as well.  Snyder has also said his Superman will have lots of action, unlike all the previous movies and TV series, which were very light on action preferring to focus more on relationships.  All this has me anticipating The Man Of Steel.  The one thing that could negate the excitement is the realization David Goyer is writing the script. Not too fond of his work, so hopefully Snyder or some script doctors will be on hand to make the script the best it could be. So far, it's looking good.
UPDATE: Some candid photos of Cavill in the Superman costume got online confirming the cape does not have the yellow "S" emblem, and there are no red trunks. In these pics, the costume looks too much like Captain Marvel Jr's.  Without the cape's "S" emblem and the red trunks, the costume looks incomplete.  Some of the enthusiasm from the original released photo has evaporated, unfortunately.

movie review: CAPTAIN AMERICA

Captain America: The First Avenger is perhaps the best "superhero" movie since Spider-Man 2 (with the possible exception of The Dark Knight).  I put "superhero" in quotation marks, because Captain America doesn't really seem like a typical superhero movie.  It's much more of a retro, romanticized World War II movie with some sci-fi elements.

The movie opens in the present with SHIELD agents finding something big in the Artic, but the story begins in the 1940s with Steve Rogers failing time and time again to enlist in the army because of his frail health.  With his best friend Bucky (a nice revision of the comic book sidekick, and the very first time this character has made it to live action) about to ship out overseas, Steve makes a last ditch effort to enlist at a recruiting station set up at a fair (with a quick wink to the original Human Torch, coincidentally the revamped Fantastic Four version played by none other than Chris Evans).  There Rogers meets up with Dr Erskine who offers him an opportunity to serve his country.  Rogers becomes one of several candidates for a super-soldier program.  As the candidates go through basic training, we get to see why Erskine ultimately picks Rogers over the others, even though physically, he continues to come in last.  We find out Erskine was forced by the Nazis to conduct an early prototype of the experiment on Johann Schmidt, which resulted in him becoming the Red Skull (and looking freakishly like a bald, red skinned Michael Jackson), leader of Hydra, Hitler's supernatural division (with allusions to Asgard and Thor). With an assist of Howard Stark (the future Iron Man Tony Stark's father) and some retro scientific machinery, Rogers becomes the first super soldier, while a bullet from a spy who infiltrated the experiment kills Erskine making Rogers also the last.

Since there is no team of super soldiers, Rogers is sent to the USO to be a patriotic morale booster as the costumed Captain America.  When he learns Bucky has been captured, he sets off on his own to rescue him and the "Howling Commandos" transplanted from the WWII comic book adventures of Nick Fury.  Now Captain America, Bucky, and the Howling Commandos go on to bust Hydra, who has split off from the Nazis to take over the world for themselves (there is also a quick nod to the Captain America TV movies starring Reb Brown - in one scene Captain America is on a motorcycle and puts his shield where the windshield would be-- the TV Captain America's shield was clear plastic and doubled as his motorcycle's windshield).  On one of the missions, Bucky is killed, and Steve blames himself.  But he carries on with the Howling Commandos to stop the Red Skull from his ultimate plan.  In order to save New York, Captain America sacrifices his life to crash the Red Skull's bomber in the Artic.  Steve's final moments before the plane crashes as he speaks to the girl he loves, Peggy Carter, on the radio for the last time are moving.  But suddenly it is the present, and Steve wakes up, having been in suspended animation, as he encounters modern New York and Nick Fury, setting up The Avengers.

Joe Johnston directed the movie very well, giving it a retro Americana feel.  Chris Evans was perfect as Steve Rogers/Captain America. Johnston's use of special effects to make Evans into the skinny Steve Rogers was flawless, and makes one wonder if this could be the future of a movie like Shazam!, where a single actor via the aid of special effects, can play both the 12 year old Billy Batson and the super powered adult Captain Marvel. Tommy Lee Jones was excellent as Col. Phillips, and Sebastian Stan perfect as Bucky. Haley Arwell was fine as Peggy Carter, and Hugo Weaving did a good job as the Red Skull.  Stanley Tucci was excellent as Dr Erskine, and Dominic Cooper's Howard Stark is much closer to the classic comic book Tony Stark than Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal.

One of the only nit-picks I had about this film were Captain America's costumes.  His first costume is a USO costume based faithfully on the comics, and made in a primitive 1940s wool style reminiscent of the loose fitting superhero costumes of old movie serials (this definitely wasn't the skin tight spandex Reb Brown wore, or the cheap looking rubber suit Matt Salinger wore).  But I would have liked to see the USO costume really be faithful to the original comics by having Captain America's shirt be made out of blue chain mail. The original chain mail costume has never made it to live action, and I wish the costume designer would have gone for it instead of the retro movie serial look.

The costume for the majority of the movie worked great. A hybrid of a military combat uniform and a typical superhero costume.  My only gripe about it was they put this wide gray border on the seams of the shirt, which was unnecessary. 

It speaks well of the movie if my only complaints are with some of the costume choices. It also would have been nice if we could have had a couple movies set during World War II, but the scheduling of The Avengers prevents it.  DC and Warner Brothers need to take notice. The retro look, and good character development, combined with well done action along with some fun and humor is a good template for the languishing Shazam! project far more so than the "Big in tights" concept they seem to be bent on.  A director like Joe Johnston would have been perfect for Shazam!, just as Joss Whedon, the director of next summer's The Avengers would have been perfect for Wonder Woman.  But alas, as the failure of Green Lantern shows, it seems like DC can't seem to do anything right in recent years, as Marvel Comics continues to pass them by.

Popeye returns to comic books!

IDW Publishing has announced Popeye the Sailor will return in an all-new monthly comic book series in 2012! The series will be co-edited by IDW co-founder Ted Adams, who said Segar's Popeye will be the heart of the series, and comics historian Craig Yoe.  No creative team has been assigned yet, but I truly hope Stephen DeStefano, who has drawn the Max Fleischer style Popeye for King Features for several years, will be tapped to be the artist, or at very least the permanent cover artist.  In an interview, Adams said,

"What we want to do is make comics that are in the vein of the original Segar strips, and create a book that it is fun for all ages. And by that, I don't mean a book that is juvenile and will only be appealing to 6-year-olds, but literally a book that could be read by a 6-year-old or a 40-year-old, and that's the approach we want to take. The intention will be to have each issue be a complete story. There may be themes that stretch beyond individual issues, but we want each issue to be a fun comic book with a beginning, middle, and end within that comic...
There's not going to be an origin story, it's not going to be that sort of thing. And this isn't going to be some modern version of Popeye, or a retelling or re-envisioning of his origin or anything. We're not going to put him in the mall or something like that... That's one of the things Craig and I will work out, but my intention is not to do a modern take on Popeye. He's not going to be walking around with an iPod. I don't think we'll necessarily say what time period it takes place in, but it will be of the period and not today's world. "

 

This is very good news.  Popeye has always been my favorite comic strip and cartoon character.  I truly hope the artwork will look like the classic, polished, and fluid Max Fleischer animated Popeye.  As Adams promised, the stories will be faithful to Segar's strips, but I also hope the writers can work in some of the terrific Fleischer style humor.  A Segar-Fleischer hybrid would be the ultimate Popeye. With DC Comics going down the tubes with their ridiculous Reboot Earth, and completely ignoring Captain Marvel, this new Popeye series is just what the doctored ordered to get me excited for comic books again.  I cannot wait.