Thursday, January 26, 2017

Thorsday with Sal Buscema and X - Factor !

Instead of the eagerly awaited second THORSDAY WITH ERIK LARSEN post we must take a break to pay homage to one of my all time favorite artists.


That´s right, comic icon Sal Buscema who has drawn every character in the Marvel universe since the Bronze Age celebrates his 81st birthday Today and since I did a short overview of his career in my last post about him we are combining two things to get an even more Airwolf post.

I have to admit : I had a total brainfart when I had the idea of combining a Sal Buscema birthday post with a THORSDAY post. Here I was desperately trying to come up with any issues of THOR that were done by Uncle Sal. Well, it didn´t take me long to remember that he did the art on several issues of Walter Simonson´s epic THOR run which undeservedly get a short thrift most of the time. As I have been collecting material for a plethora of Thor posts for years there were a lot of pictures to choose from but after doing my initial selection thing naturally starting drifting to issues 373 and 374 which happened during the MUTANT MASSACRE. You know, the brutal slaughter of most of the Morlocks by Gambit´s handpicked little gang of cutthroats, psychos and serial killers. Hmm, I wonder why some people don´t like Gambit. Anyway, in the issue Thor meets the original X - Men and although for them a lot of time has passed since they last saw him for him it is like it was just Yesterday. Yup, for gods time passes differently.


This post also makes up a bit for the fact that I couldn´t make a special Edgar Allen Poe post this year but I won´t say more about this because I don´t want to spoil things for those who have not read the story. As it would have been too long to post both issues I had to leave out a lot of stuff like what´s happening in Asgard or Thor catching up with a couple of green skinned friends but if this wets your appetite go and read the full issues. The THOR BY WALTER SIMONSON OMNIBUS hardcover is currently out of print and if you can find a copy it will probably sell for ridiculous prices but there are enough versions of the trades in circulation so it should not be difficult to find this. Or you can always look for these issues in dollar bins since they are not rare. No matter what dealers may tell you. But enough with the introduction already and let´s get to the action now.


As usual I am a bit late with the post which was caused by me trying to buy comics from the central train station newsstand in Ludwigsburg.

I don´t know why I even bother because most of the cases I come up empty. Now my german readers probably know this because there have been enough commercials on tv but Hachette is publishing a new Marvel hardcover collection while still doing the black graphic novel collection.


The new line are red hardcovers and so far I have no idea what kind of collection this will be. In the commercial they say that each new book will focus on one hero but I don´t know how different this will be from the other line. In any case, even though I already have the fantastic Ultron story by Kurt Busiek and George Perez as part of my Avengers Assemble hardcovers for 4 EUROS I was willing to chance it. That way I could see what´s in these books and if I don´t like it it will make a cheap present.


But as always they did not have it and once again I must turn to the internet although the only shop where I have seen it so far is the one in Sachsenheim. Maybe this is also a collection that is only available through newsstands which sucks if you can´t find it at the newsstands. And then people say that comics don´t sell in Germany. First you have to find them.

Today´s entertainment block starts with Ellen Degeneres who celebrates her 59th birthday and since her show is not on german tv I have to rely on clips I find on the net. Because I had already posted Mariah Carey´s breast appearances in a previous post I thought I would have to include a video where Ellen has found a funny commercial from Japan. Although it is basically the upbra of which I also posted two videos. So the product is not that weird it is more the way it is presented. In any case that is what I wanted to post but then I found this video of another racktastic visit by Mariah Carey but it has been split into three parts. Speaking of Mariah, just the other day I was zapping through the channels when I came upon the reality show Mariah´s World. How did I not know that was a thing ? 



Keeping with the subject of celebrities about whom I don´t know much, ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky turns 65 but since I never was a big ice hockey fan ( I have no idea if they showed any of the matches he was in on german tv ) the only thing I know about him is that he has an excellent taste in women since he married cult siren Janet Jones who celebrated her 56th birthday on the 10th of this month. I did a re - post of her cult siren entry and you can click here to read more about the hot babes from Police Academy like Leslie Easterbrook, sexbomb Becky Mullen and hasian hardbody Chona Jason´s erotic cult movie Sinful Intrigue and wrestling shows from the 80s. Plus a drunk Sarah Shashi, a sexy Sabrina Setlur, a classic fight by George Foreman vs Muhammad Ali, Tales From The Crypt : Ritual and classic clips from G.L.O.W. and Catch Up with Joe Williams and Horst Brack, der Bestrafer better known to german comic fans as Robi. 


Today´s birthdays seem to fall under the category 10 Things I Don´t Know which is not to say that I don´t know who Scott Glenn is. He turns 76 and he has been in too many movies to mention them all here. What I mean is that apparently he plays Matt Murdock´s gruff mentor Stick on the Netflix Daredevil series which I still haven´t seen. So I can´t say much about this.



Now Scott Glenn played an astronaut in The Right Stuff which brings us to our next birthday candidate Philip Jose Farmer who knows a thing or two about outer space. At least he has written a lot about it. I think only his Riverworld has been adapted and I really hope Hollywood botched it up.


Also no longer with us to celebrate his anniversary is Paul Newman who I always got mixed up with Steve McQueen. Probably because when I was growing up you got either one or the other in all the good movies. Of course now I don´t confuse Paul Newman with other actors because he´s the one in the movie Cool Hand Luke ( known as Der Unbeugsame - The Unbending in Germany which is the same title The Natural with Robert Redford got here ) with real life Power Girl Joy Harmon´s famous car wash scene. Never underestimate the effect giant, wet boobs that are pressed tightly against glass can have on the memory. Just ask Simona Ventura .


And since such a short animated GIF - no matter how good the quality - is ill suited to adequately show the full dimensions of Miss Harmon´s over - proportionate developed talents here is the best version of the scene.



Now while Philip Jose Farmer revolutionized science fiction with his 1952 short story The Lovers as it was the first known science fiction tale to portray sex between a human and a non - humanoid alien nobody put those kind of scenes better into pop art than Roger Vadim in Barbarella.



As it could not be any other way we are closing the post with a video showcasing Sal Buscema´s wonderful artwork. Feliz cumpleaƱo, tronco !



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When ace pilot James Rhodes garbs himself in the solar - charged, steel - mesh armor, created by Tony Stark, inventor extraordinaire, he becomes the world´s greatest human fighting machine .... the invincible Iron Man.

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