Secret Sanctum of Captain Video: coronavirus

Showing posts with label coronavirus. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Captain's Library / CoronaVirus Comics STAR TREK SPECIAL "Flesh and Stone" Part 1

What threat could require the efforts of doctors from every Star Trek series (pre-CBS All-Access)?

Buckle up, space cadets!

You're about to find out...

Dr McCoy here looks as he did in "Encounter at Farpoint", the premiere episode of Star Trek the Next Generation...

...in a scene with Dr Crusher's friend and shipmate, Data!

There (AFAWK), are three other doctors who served as Chief Medical Officer of the Enterprise NCC-1701 (chronologically)...

Dr Sarah April: medical officer and wife of the ship's first commander, Captain Robert April in "Counter-Clock Incident"
Dr Philip Boyce: Captain Christopher Pike's medical officer in "The Cage/The Menagerie"
Dr Mark Piper: Captain Kirk's first medical officer in "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

...but all would've been deceased as of the timeframe of this story.

Dr. Pulaski, though referred to as medical officer of the USS Repulse, was Dr Crusher's replacement on the Enterprise during STtNG's second season.

Crusher returned in the third season.
The conclusion to this story, including flashback to McCoy's encounter with the disease during the time of the original series can be seen tomorrow at...

Medical Comics and Stories!

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Doctor McCoy

12" Action Figure

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Captain's Library & Theatre / CoronaVirus Comics I AM LEGEND: AWAKENINGS "Death as a Gift"

In the world of the movie I Am Legend (2007) you are either immune or not.

There are far fewer who are immune...

...now there is one less.

When the post-apocalyptic pandemic movie I Am Legend opened, this comic, which combined both new material and adaptations of several motion comics from the film's website was distributed to comic stores and movie theaters!

This melancholy story, by writer Dawn Thomas and artist Jason Chan, was either adapted from the motion comic, or the motion comic was based on it.

(I'm not certain which)

Death As A Gift (Motion Comic) from Sanity Jane on Vimeo.
You'll see the other stories...soon!

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I Am Legend/Omega Man

Which features both the recent Will Smith version and the 1970s Charlton Heston version!

(But not the 1960s Vincent Price adaptation.

That one, you can get here...)

Last Man on Earth

Friday, May 29, 2020

CoronaVirus Comics Special: The DOC SAVAGE Movie that NEVER WAS!

Since we've just re-presented the comic adaptation of the novel...

...that the 1975 movie, which featured a mysterious disease as a central plot point, was based on...

...we thought it appropriate to show you what happened to the earlier movie, based on the second Bantam Doc Savage novel, "Thousand-Headed Man" that was planned, but never reached production!

Comic cover cropped from the paperback art by James Bama

In 1966, with both Bond and Bat-manias at their peak, producers Mark Goodson & Bill Toddman intended to begin a film franchise based on the hot-selling Doc Savage pulp novels being reprinted by Bantam, starting with "The Thousand-Headed Man".

1966 Newsweek article about Doc Savage and the movie. Click to enlarge.

They contracted Chuck Connors, who had recently finished a successful run on the RifleMan tv series to play Doc, and began pre-production.

Then, things stopped dead in their tracks.

It seemed that Conde Nast, who now owned the Street and Smith pulp library, including Doc Savage, The Shadow, and The Avenger, didn't own the ancillary media rights to Doc!

Those rights had been retained by co-creator Lester Dent, who had written most of the novels (including "Thousand-Headed Man") under the "Kenneth Robeson" house name.

(Dent, had previously licensed a short-lived radio version of the character, but had been unable to develop a movie or tv version.
When he passed away, his widow retained the multi-media rights.)

Mrs. Dent was more than willing to negotiate, but time was not on the producers' side.
They had already scheduled the production, and had to start shooting something or lose their investment and the cast, most of whom had commitments scheduled after the Thousand-Headed Man shoot!

To recoup, the producers switched to an already-existing Western script called Night of the Tiger, and shot it as Ride Beyond Vengeance.

(Westerns at that point were still an "easy sell" to theatres and tv.)

Looking at the Ride Beyond Vengeance cast, it's fairly easy to guess who would've played whom...

Claude Akins as Monk

Michael Rennie as Ham

William Bryant as Renny

Jamie Farr as Johnny

Bill Bixby as Long Tom

Gary Merrill or Paul Fix as Calvin Copeland

Kathryn Hays as Lucille Copeland

Not sure who would've played Sen Gat

The cast also included Frank Gorshin and James MacArthur.

In the early 1970s, the character's rights were sold to legendary movie producer George Pal, who produced Doc Savage: the Man of Bronze, starring Ron Ely, in 1974.

The Thousand-Headed Man was eventually dramatized...as a radio mini-series for NPR, who had scored great ratings with radio versions of the original Star Wars Trilogy.

Bronze Bonuses

Here's the original pulp cover...

...the rarely-seen British paperback, published at the same time as the 1975 Ron Ely feature film, and, oddly enough, based on the James Bama art for #14, The Fantastic Island...

...and the official cd release of the radio show adaptation!

...adapting the unused radio show serial scripts by Lester Dent!
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Doc Savage
The Man of Bronze

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Captain's Library / CoronaVirus Comics NYOKA THE JUNGLE GIRL "Jungle Fever Fury! Chapter Two: Appearance of the Ghost!"

We Have Already Seen...

...when Nyoka tries to put an end to the awful death toll claimed by the most horrendous enemy of the Jungle People, swamp fever...her life hangs in the balance as she battles twin terrors...disease and ignorance!

(BTW, you haven't missed a chapter!

The first part of this post appeared on our "sister" RetroBlog Heroines!)

You'll see the conclusion to this tale...

Next Week

Heroines!

Like the two serials featuring Nyoka; Jungle Girl and Perils of Nyoka, this never-reprinted story from Fawcett's Nyoka the Jungle Girl #56 (1951) was broken up into chapters ending in cliffhangers!

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Jungle Girl

and/or

Perils of Nyoka

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

CoronaVirus Captain's Library STAR WARS "Touch of the Goddess" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...well, we haven't seen this...yet!

Luke, Lando, Han, and Chewbacca seek to return two stolen statues of "The Dancing Goddess" and "The Minstrel" to give the terminally-ill population of Godo comfort in their last days.

Han deduces the missing statues are part of a gigantic part-organic machine disguised as a temple which, when functioning, suppressed the epidemic!

While Han and Luke head to recover The Minstrel, Lando and Chewbacca seek out The Dancing Lady, currently in the possession of Drebble, a rival...scoundrel...