[Press-N-Play®] Elvis Presley - 'I Got a Feelin' in My Body (Take 1)'

That time back in the '70s when Elvis got soooper funky. "I Got A Feelin' in My Body," featured on the 1973 album Elvis at Stax (yep, that Stax). 

You're welcome. 

In Memory of Ja'Net Dubois (Aug 5, 1945 - Feb 18, 2020)

This special dedication is going out to the beautiful Ja'Net DuBois, star of TV's Good Times, film actress, songwriter, and singer of the beloved theme song from The Jeffersons.

Thank you, Queen. Rest in power.

See! The Falcon's Dynamic New Wings!

Captain America issue 171 (March 1974)

They were made in Wakanda by the Black Panther, True Believers!

Ralph Bakshi’s ‘Street Fight’ Film Revisited

"Three decades have passed since my original viewing of the animated film ‘Street Fight.’ I still hate it almost everything about it." 

Note: "Ralph Bakshi’s ‘Street Fight’ Film Revisited" was originally published in Kung Fu Grip! #1. The text has recently been reformatted for publication on Medium. To check out the remixed and remastered director's cut, click here. 

Grown Ass Men Podcast, Ep 69: Adstravaganza Pt. 2

Speaking of super cool interviews, fellow writer Doug Bost of the Grown Ass Man podcast found my old article on Count Dante recently and was nice enough to invite me on to the show (via phone) so that we could discuss Chi-town's late martial arts legend. The production value on the podcast is tops, and the host somehow managed to make yours truly sound like an authority on the Count, comics, and the golden age of martial arts in America. I hope you'll give Episode 69 of the GAM podcast a listen!

Ep. 69: Adstravaganza - Part II (with special guests Joseph Dasaro and Paco Taylor) https://apple.co/2TsazvB

Happy Belated 80th, Count Dante!

February 2, 2019 marked what would have been the 80th birthday of the man once known as Count Dante (1939-1975). Having grown up in the golden age of martial arts movies reading comics–where Dante's most famous ad for his martial arts system appeared–the Count holds a special place in my heart, and in the hearts of countless others. 

In the fall of 2004 I wrote an essay on Count Dante and published it in the first issue of Kung Fu Grip zine. Sometime last year, I decided that I should probably transfer that piece to the web. As coincidence would have it, a fellow Gen-Xer who both read and liked the piece invited me onto his podcast on February 1st to talk about the infamous cult figure. It was a fun chat.  

I'll post a link to the show when its edited and uploaded to the web in a couple of weeks. But in the meantime, if you've never read "Man, You Come Right Out Of A Comic Book," you can check it out the essay by clicking here. 

The Incredible Hulk vs Man-Thing!

Incredible Hulk issue 197 (March 1976). Cover by Bernie Wrightson.

One of the great things about comics is that somehow–even having lived through the Bronze Age–there's still so many cool books that I've never even seen. Wow.

'Enter the Dragon And His Allies' comic strip one-sheet, circa 1973 (It's okay, fam–Act like you knew)

Enter the Dragon and His Allies is the semi-clunky title used for the one-sheet comic strip that was packed into the press kit for the 1973 Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon. I always wanted to have this in my collection, but could never find a reasonably priced copy in good condition, or a good scan of the page. When I got over it and wasn't looking for it anymore though, I happened across a great scan that some super cool soul uploaded to the interwebs. If you've never seen or heard of Enter the Dragon and His Allies before – or if you too have wanted to have a decent digital copy for your archive, here it is. Click the image below to download and enjoy. 

Acknowledgement is the first step: Confessions of Prince Planet cartoon junkie

The black and white kid's show Prince Planet (aka Planet Boy Papi), for countless numbers of snot-nosed kids living in and around "Chicagoland" in the mid-1970s, was an innocent-looking cartoon gateway drug that lead an untold many into lifelong spiral patterns of addiction for the animated films and TV shows of Japan. 

This blogger/failed addict in recovery was an impressionable 4 year-old when Prince Planet was aired at 3:00 in the afternoon on WSNS Channel 44, a station situated on the ultrahigh frequency or UHF dial of antique analog TVs. 

On weekday afternoons, after being awakened from my midday nap, I would scramble like a little lunatic to the television in the living room, 'jonesing' like a junkie for my quick fix, my daily dose of that half-hour high called Prince Planet.   

It's nearly indescribable, the hold that this cartoon had on myself and also many others who, I would learn later as an adult, were similarly effected by its habit-forming charms. It was an appeal that grabbed at us all from multiple levels; from the catchy, kid-voiced theme song and the show's brave kid hero, to the crazy cast of equally brave supporting characters, wicked villains, and planet-spanning adventures. 

Prince Planet was like no other cartoon show on TV. Unless, of course, you'd been a kid in during in the 1960s –– which I hadn't –– and had the pleasure of seeing episodes of the exciting Astro Boy or Gigantor (which I didn't), two other black and white imports from Japan that also featured pint-sized heroes.   

And then, quite unexpectedly, I turned on the TV one day to find that Prince Planet was gone, replaced in the 3:00 time slot by another show called Speed Racer. 

Unlike the monochromatic cartoon that I had come to adore, Speed Racer had been produced in color––apparently the kind of thing that was more attractive to advertisers, whose dollars paid for the commercial airtime that sustained TV stations like WSNS. 

I, of course, being a lil' kid, had no idea about the very shady business side of the TV racket. It took a while to get over the sense of loss that was felt, but soon enough I warmed up to Speed Racer. 

Despite my age, I was still astute enough then to realize that, like Prince Planet, Speed Racer characters had similarly large eyes. And though I was still too young to understand the connection, I was satisfied just thinking that there was one, and that the large-eyed look suggested something in the way of uniqueness. 

Schwarzenegger 'sez: "Build more muscle in just 7 weeks with the Joe Weider Musclebuilding Book!"

[Bookshelf] The Collected Works of Vaughn Bode

In the early days of Ebay, I flipped this super vintage poster of a sexy centaur woman by the late comic book artist Vaughn Bode (1940-1975) that I'd found in a local bookstore. But I'll probably never part with the five trade paperbacks in my collection that feature Bode's collected comic book works. Published by Fantagraphics Books, these stellar trades contain classic strips by Bode culled from various self-published underground comix as well as comic strips that the cartoonist produced for several magazines, including National Lampoon's, Heavy Metal, and Witzend. Some of the trades from Fantagraphics' Bode Erotica series (4 volumes) are a little harder to find now for a reasonable price, but the Cheech Wizard, Deadbone and Junkwaffel trades can usually be found for around retail price. A must have for underground comix historians and students of old school graffiti art. Collect 'em all if you're cool like that, or just stick with the two Cheech Wizard volumes to get a sample of Bode's genius.