Monday, July 22, 2013

Captain's Library: ATARI FORCE "Final Approach"

In the future world of 2005, a female ninja with an Irish accent invades the Atari Institute, last bastion of science on a war-torn Earth.
Meanwhile, Commander Martin Champion and Doctor Lucas Orion have been summoned to that very installation by Assistant Director Lydia Perez, to discuss the top-secret "Project Multiverse"...

Plotted by Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway with Conway doing the script, and illustrated by Ross Andru (pencils) and Dick Giordano & Mike DeCarlo (inks), the never-reprinted premiere continued in the next issue, which was included in the package for Atari's Berserk cartridge.
Atari Force 
will
Return!

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Captain's Theatre: LONE RANGER and LONE RANGER AND THE CITY OF GOLD

They weren't the first Lone Ranger & Tonto in movies...
...but the odds are they are still the best-known, ironically, due to television!
They're Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels.
And to several generations of fans, they personified the Masked Man and His Indian Companion!
From 1949 to 1957*, they rode across the tv screens of America dispensing justice in the Old West.
When, in 1955 it was decided to begin shooting the b/w series in color (anticipating then-new color tvs would eventually dominate the market) , the producers decided to absorb the cost of acquiring color film cameras, reshooting stock footage, and redoing costumes by doing a theatrical feature, then shooting the remaining tv episodes.
We presented the comic adaptation of the movie in a historic multi-blog post HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Take a look at the trailer for the feature film...

When the final episode of the tv series was "in the can" in 1958, the producers decided to do one more theatrical film which gave Jay Silverheels' Tonto his biggest role in the series, finally doing battle alone, as well as a "message' about racial bigotry quite daring for its' time...
Unfortunately, there's no clip available of Tonto's historic fight on YouTube.
The opening of the film had a one-time theme that retells the origin of the team...

The pairing of Moore and Silverheels was so iconic that, even a decade after the show was canceled, they were appearing in commercials...

But that was not the last time a live-action Lone Ranger would grace the silver screen before the recent film.
For that story, visit Western Comics Adventures ™ tomorrow...
And for more Dynamic Duos in Classic Film click HERE!
*From 1952 to 1954, Clayton Moore was replaced by John Hart.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Captain's Library: ATARI FORCE "Deadly Orbit"

In the year 2005, the Atari Institute is infiltrated by a black-clad female martial-artist with an Irish accent.
Meanwhile, Astronaut Martin Champion and Dr Lucas Orion are summoned to the Institute by Assistant Director Lydia Perez.
En route, Champion tells Dr Orion how he met Perez years ago...
We'll find out more next week, when Champion and Orion enter...
Plotted by Roy Thomas & Gerry Conway with Conway doing the script, this first "issue" of Atari Force (published in 1982) introduces us to the devastated Earth of 2005 and the group that will eventually become "Atari Force", with flashbacks about most of them.
Illustrated by Ross Andru (pencils) and Dick Giordano & Mike DeCarlo (inks), the premiere had a slick, clean, highly-professional look.
Join us next week as we probe further into both the fictional and real-life worlds of Atari Force!