PCR past banners Now in our sixth calendar year
PCR #253  (Vol. 6 No. 4)  This edition is for the week of January 24--30, 2005.

THIS WEEK'S MOVIE REVIEW
"Million Dollar Baby"
 by Mike Smith
ODDSERVATIONS
Goodnight, Johnny....Got the Clap?....Off Beat Cinema '05
 by Andy Lalino
SPLASH PAGE
Megacon: Looking Ahead to Wolfman & Perez....Get it While You Can....Things I Didn’t Know But Probably Should Have....Here’s To Johnny and “Slick”
 by Brandon Jones
MATT'S RAIL
Heeeere's Johnny!...Rondo Awards Nominations Are Out....Football Fabulah
 by Matt Drinnenberg
MIKE'S RANT
In Memory Of....It Was A "Y" for Yale....It's Razzie Time....Dick, Perry, and Friends....It Was 20 years Ago Today....Jaws: The Story, Part 3
 by Mike Smith
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Megacon: Looking Ahead to Wolfman & Perez

The '80s brought us many turning points in comic book history such as The Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns. Many fans are critical of Crisis on Infinite Earths because they are most likely continuity purists, but this was a milestone in its own right.

Marv Wolfman and George Perez gave us a fantastic run on Teen Titans and Crisis. While I’ll agree that TT was probably a better comic in retrospect, Crisis was life changing. I am fully admitting that I was a sucker, spending countless dollars and time tracking down all of the crossover issues. It was insane. Of course, the deaths of the Flash and Supergirl were moments that I can define my comic book memories around.

Wolfman should be a role model for some of you fanboys out there, as he broke into the biz by publishing a fanzine mag, which led to House of Mystery and later Tomb of Dracula (which is awesome.) Did you know we is the creator of Daredevil’s nemesis Bullseye?

George Perez not only provided the art for the milestone Crisis, but also Avengers #181. So? What do you mean so? This was and is the single biggest comic for me in the my comic book reading/collecting life. The incredible Perez cover to complement the Byrne splash inside, still my favorite (and Joe Casey’s in a recent survey).

The underrated talents of Perez include some other classics on his resume: The Infinity Gauntlet, The Inhumans, Hulk: Future Imperfect, a great stint on Wonder Woman and (this sounds crazy) but he even did the Logun’s Run comic.

I know MegaCon is the yearly pilgrimage of the EIC, so I thought it would be a great sounding board of comic info for the next few weeks.

Get it while you can

How often are new X-characters? Okay, let me rephrase that, how often is there a new X-Men character that you CARE about? Not many.

Not since “Uncanny X-Men #266” offered the full appearance of Gambit has there been a buzz like there is in the recent “NYX” series. Issue #3 offers the first appearance of X-23, a Wolverine clone with claws in her hands and her feet.

$50? Yep, that was the tag for the only copy I’ve seen, though I’ll I haven’t searched the 'net or a show yet.

Things I Didn’t Know but Probably Should Have

Movies that Marvel has “in development” or more: a script polish on a “Luke Cage” script, sequels “Hulk 2” and “Punisher 2” (no surprise), “Troy” screenwriter is working on “Wolverine” and an attempt to make “Werewolf by Night.”

Worst Baby Name Ever: Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf named their child Pilot Inspektor. Pilot huh? And I laughed at Courtney Cox and Davd Arquette with CoCo (it’s the same name as my sons’ hamster.)

Super Bowl “Prop Bets”: There’s no connection between the success of the NFL and gambling. I repeat, there’s no…nevermind. While I’m as addicted to Fantasy Football as Matt seems like he is, the Super Bowl always reminds us of the incredible gambling that is taking place.

You can bet on the following: who will punt first, who will score last, who will have the longest touchdown and the player to score the first touchdown. My favorite is that there’s a line on which team will initiate the first coach's challenge.

There’s no line as to the number of erectile dysfunction commercials. Sorry.

Here’s To Johnny and “Slick”

Class. That sums it up. Johnny Carson was the Michael Jordan of talk show hosts. He was larger than life, but never shoved down your throat. The subtle mannerisms, facial expressions were far less obvious than many of his contemporaries and that was part of his brilliance.

There are so many memories of Carson: “Stump the Band”, Floyd R. Turbo, “petting” animals brought in by Jack Hanna or of course, “Carnac the Magnificant” (the hermetically sealed envelopes from a mayonaisse jar were my favorites) and most recently, CBS Senior VP Peter Lassally said that Carson would send jokes to David Letterman for Dave’s monologue for kicks. So, even off the air, Carson was making us all laugh.

James Scott Baumgardner: As a teenager, his friends called him “Slick”. He was a high school dropout, who earned a purple heart with the merchant marines, began acting in 1954. Shortly there after, he began his work on the TV series “Maverick” and many other Westerns. My grandfather always like him because he seemed “like a nice guy with a good nature” – I just thought he was cool, like John Wayne.

So had to see “The Great Escape” – everyone was in it, but I wanted to be like “The Scrounger.” Later he worked on “The Rockford Files” and many other good films, but he was, and is, forever in my heart as “The Scrounger”. I’ll miss you James Garner. I wish I could have met you, then maybe I could call you Jim.


"Splash Page" is ©2005 by Brandon Jones.   Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova.  All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2005 by Nolan B. Canova.