Monday, January 30, 2012

Captain's Theatre: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN "From Beyond the Grave"

Art by John Romita Sr
LP records adapting comic strip and comic book characters into audio adventures date back to the 1940s.
The heyday was during the 1960s when both brand-new adventures (often in stereo) and re-presentations of classic radio dramas competed for shelf space in record stores.
Art by John Romita Sr
But this album, from 1972, was a whole new approach to the genre...a superhero musical, loaded with genre-related talent!
Ron Dante, the voice and composer behind The Archies (remember "Sugar, Sugar"?), and his band performed the album's music as "The WebSpinners".
Peter Parker/Spider-Man was voiced by a young up-and-comer named Rene Auberjonois who's appeared as several different characters in the Star Trek universe, most notably as Odo on Deep Space Nine and voiced Dessad on both the Super Friends and Justice League animated series!
Kingpin was played by Thayer David, known to genre fans as the villainous Arne Saknussemm in Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), multiple evil roles on the gothic soap Dark Shadows. and the blackmailing villain in the pilot for the live-action Amazing Spider-Man tv series!
The script and music were penned by Stephen Lemberg, who not only did this album, but the Fantastic Four dramatic radio show and the infamous A MARVEL-ous Evening with Stan Lee at Carnegie Hall! (Nobody's perfect.)






Here's the album's gatefold interior, featuring the art used in the videos above...
Is that kool, or what?

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Captain's Theatre: MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. "Bat Cave Affair"


As we mentioned yesterday, here's a classic example of 1960s "camp" featuring Martin Landau doing a really bad Bela Lugosi imitation as THRUSH Agent Count Zark. in "The Bat Cave Affair".



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featuring Jet Dream & Her StuntGirl CounterSpies, and other retro-kool '60s characters!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Captain's Library: MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. "Brain Drain Affair" Conclusion

...actually, I'll let the ACT II splash page synopsis of this story from Man from U.N.C.L.E. #14 (1967) tell the tale...
Story probably by Dick Wood (who wrote most of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. comics), pencils definitely by Mike Sekowsky, inks probably by Mike Peppe.

As you can see, things have taken a decidedly campy turn since issue #1.
The tv show itself had gone camp due to the astounding success of the Batman tv series and most other fantasy/sci-fi shows also went "over-the-top", in some cases (the Irwin Allen shows Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space in particular), becoming almost parodies of themselves.
You'll see an example of this...tomorrow!

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featuring Jet Dream & Her StuntGirl CounterSpies, and other retro-kool '60s characters!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Captain's Library: MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. "Brain Drain Affair" Part 1

During it's run on NBC, Man from U.N.C.L.E. got progressively campier...
...due to the ratings success of the legendarily-campy Batman tv series.
Unfortunately, the comics followed suit, as you can see from issue #14 (1967)...
Will "King Brain" help THRUSH achieve World Domination?
Can Napoleon and Illya stop this insidious plot or will they be "brain-drained"?
When will we stop asking such inane questions?
Tune in tomorrow for the amazing answers to at least two out of three questions!

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featuring Jet Dream & Her StuntGirl CounterSpies, and other retro-kool '60s characters!