Adventures in Comic-Boxing: SHADOW??? ...Of a Doubt!

The TWILIGHT ZONE, BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY, and RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT titles published by Gold Key Comics were known for their beautifully painted covers...

  

  

...Mostly by a talented painter named George Wilson, who also painted covers for VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, STAR TREK and other Gold Key titles.  

   

Far be it from me to question the technique of such an amazing artist, but there was the matter of TWILIGHT ZONE # 43 (Gold Key Comics, Cover Date: May, 1972)...

...And what could be interpreted as a "shadow" on the unfortunate victim's clothing... or, perhaps not!  

I have no idea what my panicked reflexes might do if I were to fall, seemingly to my death, from a tall building and abruptly meet the street below... 

...Though it WOULD be sorta "Twilight Zone-ish ironic" if my crumpled body were to be further run over by one of those BUSSES seen in the painting, after all the public hearings I've spoken at to save and restore local bus service... 

 

That even LOOKS LIKE ME, in 1972 that is! 

...But, knowing me, my final thoughts would probably be... "To PEE, or not to PEE, that is the pants-staining question!"  

...And, having asked that question (that was probably on the lips of every comics reader and fan who ever saw this issue), I leave you to provide your own answer!  

...Gosh, if only he'd worn BLACK instead of red!  

Special Bonus Gag ('cause I just can't help myself): "Hey, Bellboy... Urine trouble now, ain'tcha!"

...Sorry!  We'll resume our normally tasteful posting next time!   

Adventures in Comic-Boxing: Watching Too Much TV Can Be Hazardous to Your Health!

Here's a little gem hidden away behind the main Batman story of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD # 88 (DC Comics, Cover Date February-March, 1970 - cover below)...

...Aptly titled "Death Turns the Dial!"

Written by the issue's editor Murray Boltinoff, and drawn by George Tuska.  We'll break it down by panels.

Henry gets lost in TV, as some of us tend to do in these trying days.

But, it gets to be "too much" for Henry - just as the relentless onslaught of cable news is getting to be for me.

Henry pays the price... and I don't mean his cable bill!

But, at least he was watching a western - and not a daily parade of federal officials being forced to act "optimistically" and to minimize the scope of this tragedy while people (that could include you and me) are dying in horrific numbers every day!  If given a choice between the two, I'd prefer to die to the western any day!

The last line is TRULY magnificent!

You might "hear" that line being spoken by Rod Serling... And, if so, you wouldn't be off one bit!

But I hear it as being better delivered by Alfred Hitchcock, as he might have done on ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS!

I read it aloud in my best impression of Hitchcock (which some of you have actually heard), and it's perfect!  Not my impression (which is still pretty good), but the combination of the line and the (imagined) voice of Hitchcock!

Finally, in the true spirit of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, we present the following closing bit - as it might have been read by Hitchcock... 

Perhaps Henry would still be alive...

...If he had chosen to watch THE FLINTSTONES instead!  

Good... Eee..ven..ing!  

R.I.P. Harlan Ellison

One of the giants of writing - both due to his own vast talents, and the notoriety created by his often cantankerous nature - left us on June 28, 2018, with the passing of Harlan Ellison at the age of 84.  

Not being much of a "reader of novels, or other prose fiction", it was through the medium of television that Harlan Ellison was able to reach this devotee.  And, it was through the outstanding efforts he created for that medium that I became a life-long admirer of those vast talents.

Ironically, his characteristic cantankerous nature was perhaps the very thing that limited his contributions to the medium of television to a precious - but VERY CHOICE - few, during the formative, and groundbreaking, period of the 1960s.  

Last night, as I often do when someone I admire in the field of popular culture passes, I indulged in a personal "Harlan Ellison Marathon", culled from my DVD collection, and immensely enjoyed those "precious but very choice few" artifacts from what will forever be my favorite era of television.  

...And, as sparse as his contributions might have been, Harlan Ellison was one of the many reasons why that era is so personally beloved!  

Ever so slightly out-of-original-order, here was the program for Saturday evening, June 30, 2018... and can you think of a better way to ride-out the middle of a five-or-more-day 90-plus heat wave?  

THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR: Season 3 Episode 10: "Memo from Purgatory" (December 21, 1964).  

Ellison's autobiographical account of his early days as an aspiring writer, during which he joined a 1950s New York street gang in order to write a novel expose on the controversial subject.  

The hour is both quite dramatic and, at times - and from this modern-day perspective - laughable, but is riveting nonetheless, and an unusual subject for the Hitchcock Hour.  So much so that Hitchcock himself dispenses with his usual "funny-host-bit" at the end of the program, and instead tells us that "...the problem of youth gangs should be taken seriously"!    

It is also noteworthy for a cast consisting of James Caan (in the "Ellison role" - and in my view just a tad too old and "dignified" to be a member of a street gang), a pre-STAR TREK Walter Koenig as the leader of the gang, and cool tough guys Tony Musante and Zalman King as gang members.  

Oddly, Walter Koenig would not yet have joined the cast of STAR TREK when Ellison would have written his immortal TREK opus "The City on the Edge of Forever" - but he gets to write for him here!  

Also, it is a VERY RARE non-sci-fi offering from Ellison!  

VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA: Season 1 Episode 5: "The Price of Doom" (October 12, 1964).

On board the Submarine Seaview, a monstrously-expanding specimen of plankton, and a surreptitious saboteur wreak havoc for Admiral Nelson and Captain Crane.  

Unknowingly, with these elements and in this FIFTH episode, Harlan Ellison set the basic template for the next four years of this series, where both monsters and sinister passengers of all sorts would abound!  

With his aforementioned cantankerousness, Ellison had his name removed from the writing credits of the episode - loudly disagreeing with network-mandated changes to his script (...He should try writing scripts for Disney comic books some time!  Hoo-boy, would he have had a hard time with THAT!) - and had it replaced with his pen-name "Cord Wainer Bird"!  

He never again contributed to this series, as well as other series that would similarly displease him, and that would indeed be a pity!  

THE OUTER LIMITS: Season 2 Episode 1: "Soldier" (September 19, 1964).

In the vast wasteland of Earth's distant future, two soldiers, both deadly enemies bred only to kill, are transported by a freak accident to Earth of 1964.  Separated in their journey, "Quarlo Clobregnny", played to savage perfection by actor Michael Ansara, falls under the care of a psychiatrist (Lloyd Nolan) who is determined to break through Quarlo's singular savagery... while the other "soldier" remains mysteriously at large - but close by!

A nicely-done, tense outing, devoid of the usual aliens and monsters that inhabit THE OUTER LIMITS!     

THE OUTER LIMITS: Season 2 Episode 5: "Demon with a Glass Hand" (October 17, 1964).

Robert Culp is "Trent", a man with no memory - save that of a computer in the form of an artificial hand!  He begins the episode with only TWO of the hand's "five fingers", each finger being a vast memory cell.  To piece his mysteriously dangerous situation together, he must restore all five fingers to his "glass hand"!  

Not an easy task as, in THIS future - as opposed to the one seen a mere four weeks ago in "Soldier", aliens have completely conquered the Earth, and possess the three missing fingers!  Trent is the guardian of the remaining human population of future-Earth but, without the memories stored in the missing fingers, does not know where they are, nor how to locate and restore them!  

Dispatched mysteriously to (you guessed it) 1964, he is the quarry of the conquering aliens, who travel back in time via a "Time-Mirror" to capture Trent, learn the location of the remaining humans - and destroy them.  

All the action takes place in an actual Los Angeles office building - a old and distinctively creepy structure called "The Bradbury Building", which has been the site of other TV and film productions - and is immediately recognizable to knowledgeable fans.  

In the building, Trent finds and partners with a timid-yet-brave woman played by Arlene Martel - later known as the Vulcan "T'Pring" on STAR TREK!  And the BUILDING is as much a "star" of this magnificent episode as are Culp and Martel!  

My inadequate description of "Demon with a Glass Hand" hardly does it justice!  It is, without doubt, one of the single greatest examples of Science Fiction ever produced for television!  If you haven't seen it, DO SO!  And, if you have, DO SO AGAIN!  

Uncharacteristically, Harlan Ellison actually penned TWO episodes of THE OUTER LIMITS, unlike any of the other series cited in this survey of his work.  

Alas, on regrettably similar occasions, I've had relatively recent viewings of these two superb episodes of THE OUTER LIMITS... "Soldier" for the passing of Michael Ansara, and "Demon with a Glass Hand" for the passing of Arlene Martel.  

STAR TREK: Season 1 Episode 28: "The City on the Edge of Forever" (April 06, 1967).

Does this REALLY need any introduction?  A drug-crazed Doctor McCoy jumps through a mysterious time portal and changes all Earth history - including the creation of Starfleet!  Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock follow to undo the damage, but first they must somehow figure out exactly what the damage was!  Oh, and we're in Depression-Era New York City, with Joan Collins!  

Far better known than "Demon with a Glass Hand", "The City on the Edge of Forever" is ALSO (to repeat myself) "one of the single greatest examples of Science Fiction ever produced for television!", and it's no small coincidence that two such incredible products sprang from the fertile imagination of the same great mind!  

Finally, to end the evening with a change of pace, there was this...

TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: Season 1 Episode 10: "Djinn, No Chaser" (January 13, 1985).  Adapted from a short story by Harlan Ellison.  

A hapless 1980s newlywed husband, spends time in an insane asylum, after his wife buys a "magic lamp", inhibited by a loud, mischievous, and cranky genie who, due to his immense physical size, cannot get out of the lamp!  A funny, first-person-narrated (by the husband) story, with basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the not-so-genial-genie!    

Ya almost gotta wonder if that same genie was previously seen in (all together now) 1964!  

In addition to this, and so many other things, Harlan Ellison's stories and scripts were also seen on the 1980s version of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, the 1990s version of THE OUTER LIMITS, and even the original 1960s version of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. - which debuted in... 1964!  

Ellison even wrote an unproduced script for the 1966 BATMAN TV SERIES, which would have introduced Two-Face to that particular 1960s continuity.  It was recently published in graphic novel form by DC Comics!  

 
For all this and countless more items, stories, and anecdotes, I thank you, Mr. Harlan Ellison!  Rest In Peace!  

Show, Show, Show Your (Re)boot… Gently Down the Stream(ing)!

Yeah, I know!  It’s a pretty lame title, if I need a Robot to help explain it! 

But, this post stems from an e-mail exchange with the members of the Horror and Sci-Fi Film Appreciation Society that I attend each Thursday night.  One of the members, our friend Marc Whinston, was lamenting a new version of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, which is scheduled to begin streaming on CBS’ All Access streaming platform.  You can see the article Marc sent HERE!

My response to this was something I felt I could turn into a Blog post - not unlike THIS RECENT POST.  So, never one to let anything go to waste, here it is…

That's just the trend now - and everyone wants to get in on it!  Reboot a classic show concept for some streaming platform, in an attempt to better compete with mainstream broadcasting.  

We've come SO FAR, haven't we? 

Star Trek, Lost in Space, and now Twilight Zone.  I have no great hopes for any of these, despite their "originals" all being classic-era favorites of mine.   Maybe, if someone decides to do Space 1999, it might actually be good by comparison!  :-)   "Space 2099", anyone?  

When you think about it, unlike Star Trek or Lost in Space, where there is a firm memory of both characters and concept that is bound to disappoint a segment of the audience... you can just tell any weird era-appropriate mystery with a kicker of irony and slap the name "Twilight Zone" on it, and it *could* work!  No actual "ghosts" of existing and beloved characters to live up to... as long as the host comes across as acceptably "Serling-esque". 

Remember, Twilight Zone HAS been rebooted TWICE before for broadcast TV, with Charles Aidman, and later Forest Whitaker as host.  While neither of those incarnations stood up to comparison with the original (WHAT COULD?!), neither of them were particularly bad - just "different era-appropriate".  I can say that because I *have* watched some of both later versions over the last two years, and they are EXACTLY as I say...  "weird era-appropriate mysteries with kickers of irony that had the name 'Twilight Zone' slapped on them"!  

...And think about it... Wouldn't a segment of the audience look in JUST BECAUSE the name "Twilight Zone" was slapped on it, rather than if it did exactly the same thing, but called itself something else?  Licensing that NAME automatically brings curiosity and NOTICE value that it would not otherwise have!  

The first and STILL the BEST! 

Indeed, you could say the same for licensing the names "Star Trek" and "Lost in Space" for any similarly themed new properties.  

Star Trek's various TV reboots were wise enough to NOT "recreate" the original series, but offer NEW adventures with NEW characters set in that "same universe"!  Three of them in the future of that universe ("Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine", and "Voyager") and one in it's past ("Enterprise").  So, as long as the FEEL of Star Trek was reasonably recreated (and I believe it was), these shows were successful - and were enjoyed by me.  Maybe this holds true for the new series... maybe it does not.  We will know soon enough.  

As for Lost in Space, I don't think it will EVER be "successfully recreated" because... ever since "2001 A Space Odyssey", and its very talented but misguided director, decided that space sci-fi should be "cold, sterile, and humorless", the spirit of lighthearted FUN that was the hallmark of Lost in Space (or certain Star Trek episodes like "The Trouble with Tribbles", or "A Piece of the Action") was never seen again!  

Look no further than Space 1999 for proof.  Even the later Star Trek series reflected that to some degree, when compared with the original.  Far more "tight" than "light".  You can "lose" ANY old family "in space", but it will not be "Lost in Space" without that sense of overt humor and outright weirdness!  And that's what will probably happen with THAT new series - and its "female Doctor Smith"!  

...At least that's my "writer's perspective" on all of this.  

Also, this trend of "rebooting a classic show concept for some streaming platform" will eventually pass - especially if these shows fail to be successful.  

...Thoughts, anyone?