Friday, March 13, 2009 Spider-Man Has A Giant Robot

And a motorcycle, and a ginourmous wristwatch, and..

Grainy episodes of the 1978 Toei Spider-Man television series have been floating about the intertubes ever since they were wide enough to squeeze video through. But now Marvel is hosting subbed episodes on their website, with a new one uploaded every Thursday. Now we can finally follow the dialogue, and at long last confirm that it still doesn't make any fricking sense.

The Japanese series is vastly different from its comic book inspiration. Our Hero is a hot-blooded motorcycle racer given spider-like powers, a spider-like costume, and a leopard-like spaceship by aliens who obviously knew nothing about thematic consistency. The spaceship transforms into a giant robot, and legend has it that the success of Spider-Man resulted in all subsequent Japanese TV superheroes to be likewise saddled with the things. Yes, the Power Rangers are the direct descendants of Spider-Man and there's nothing we can do about it.

The first episode is posted below. You'll have to head over to Marvel's video site to watch the rest.


And because you'll want to listen to the catchy theme tune on your iThing while performing your superheroic workout, here's a link - courtesy of the late, lamented CosmoBells blog - to download the soundtrack album in mp3 format. Now let's head to the gym.

Eccentric Sound of Spider-Man at CosmoBells

"Joker" Gunned Down by Police

All over the web by now, I'm sure, but the story below comes from CBSNews.com

Gunman Dressed As The Joker Shot By Police

Man, A Soldier, Pointed Shotgun At Police After Chase In National Park

FRONT ROYAL, Va., March 12, 2009

(AP) A soldier dressed and wearing face-paint like Batman villain The Joker was shot and killed by police in the Shenandoah National Park after he pointed a loaded shotgun at them after a chase, an FBI affidavit says.

Army Spc. Christopher Lanum, a suspect in the stabbing of a fellow soldier at Fort Eustis, was killed hours after the attack when officers attempted to stop the minivan he was driving, according to court documents filed Wednesday that first disclosed the weekend shooting.

Lanum's girlfriend Patsy Ann Marie Montowski, a passenger in the van, was hit by gunfire and treated at a hospital. She was arrested Wednesday evening and charged with being accessory after the fact to assault, authorities said.

A lawyer for Montowski was not listed in court documents.

According to the FBI affidavit filed in federal court in Montowski's case, Lanum was dressed in The Joker outfit at the time of an argument early Sunday with his Fort Eustis suite mate, Spc. Mitchell Stone. Montowski told the FBI that Lanum idolized the character.

Stone told emergency workers that Lanum stabbed him and used a stun gun on him, authorities said, adding he was taken to a hospital for serious injuries and later released.

Stone told emergency workers that Lanum stabbed him and used a stun gun on him, the affidavit said. Stone was taken to a hospital for serious injuries and later released.

Lanum and Montowski fled in her van, which a park ranger spotted about 200 miles northwest of the base, according to authorities. The ranger called for help, and Lanum led police on a slow-speed chase before running over a spike strip laid down by police and crashing, they added.

The FBI said Montowski told them that Lanum handed her the shotgun and asked her to kill him, but she refused. The affidavit says Lanum pointed the gun at police, his finger on the trigger, and refused commands to drop the weapon. A trooper fired through the driver's side window, Lanum's shotgun discharged, and police fired several times.

The trooper and park rangers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of internal investigations, according to a joint state police, FBI and National Park Service release.

Now would be a good time for parents to start their kids on the Clark Savage regimen. I give it another ten years at most before costumed villainy is commonplace.

Thursday, March 12, 2009 'Vampire' Discovered in Mass Grave

From the March 7th, 2009 issue of New Scientist:

A SKELETON exhumed from a grave in Venice is being claimed as the first known example of the "vampires" widely referred to in contemporary documents.

Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence in Italy found the skeleton of a woman with a small brick in her mouth while excavating mass graves of plague victims from the Middle Ages on Lazzaretto Nuovo Island in Venice.

At the time the woman died, many people believed that the plague was spread by "vampires" which, rather than drinking people's blood, spread disease by chewing on their shrouds after dying. Grave-diggers put bricks in the mouths of suspected vampires to stop them doing this, Borrini says.

The belief in vampires probably arose because blood is sometimes expelled from the mouths of the dead, causing the shroud to sink inwards and tear. Borrini, who presented his findings at a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Denver, Colorado, last week, claims this might be the first such vampire to have been forensically examined. The skeleton was removed from a mass grave of victims of the Venetian plague of 1576.

However, Peer Moore-Jansen of Wichita State University in Kansas says he has found similar skeletons in Poland and that while Borrini's finding is exciting, "claiming it as the first vampire is a little ridiculous".

Borrini says his study details the earliest grave to show archaeological "exorcism evidence against vampires".

Occult Detectives: The Return of Doctor Spektor

Following up to a previous post, here's the remaining run of Don Glut's Occult Files of Doctor Spektor series. I've split them up into two RAR files. The first includes Doctor Spektor #07 through 14, the second contains issues 15 through 24 and Gold Key Spotlight #8. Whitman did publish a 25th issue of Doctor Spektor, but it was simply a reprint of the first issue.


Click on the links below to be taken to the Rapidshare download link. Each file is near 200mb, so set aside some time if you're not on high-speed.

Dr Spektor vol 2

Dr Spektor vol 3

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Obligatory Watchmen Post

Like every other geek on the internet, I went to see Watchmen this weekend. I'm actually old enough to have bought and read the original series as it hit the newsstands every month - every month except for that long delay between issues late in the series' run (funny what had been strange and maddening then has become commonplace now, and rarely with a payoff as worthwhile as Moore and Gibbon's work). When the first rumors of a movie adaptation had started in the early 90's, I was pretty excited at the idea of a project helmed by Terry Gilliam and starring the likes of Kevin Costner, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Gary Busey(!). Years down the line and with production finally getting past the development stage, I found myself uninterested in the whole idea.

Because at that point, I had realized that what made Watchmen great isn't easily transferable to film. The interplay between words and pictures, detailed-filled panels that were meant to be lingered over, text pieces that added so much to the story - these elements and more were combined in a way that is impossible to duplicate in any other medium. Watchmen wasn't pulp with pictures or movies on paper, it was one of the first works to take full advantage of the comics medium, and one of the few books to actually deserve the title of "graphic novel".

A filmmaker is denied most of this comic's great strengths and is left with only the story, the least of Watchmen's charms, the outermost layer of the onion. Even then, time constraints require most of the character development and subplots to be jettisoned, weakening the original even further. A good director could still make the project work, adding his own imprimatur, maybe updating certain aspects so that Watchmen the film could comment on its time in the same way Watchmen the comic did.

Zack Snyder is not that director. About all he added was more sex and violence, in one case at least doing so to the disservice of the characters and story. Having Laurie casually knife a mugger strips away an important difference between her and Dan and the likes of Rorschach and the Comedian, and makes a mockery of her conversations with Dr. Manhattan regarding the importance of human life. It speaks volumes about Snyder's grasp of the nuance and subtlety of the original work, as do many other of the minor changes he makes. Bits are kept or jettisoned based on their "cool" factor and not their importance to the narrative. Snyder is like a child reciting Shakespeare from rote, parroting the words without true understanding, without really appreciating the poetry he has memorized.

What we are left with is a movie where all the actors look exactly like their comic counterparts, where all the major plot points are hit faithfully and on time, and where nothing new or challenging occurs. This may describe some comic fans' idea of a perfect movie adaptation, but I was bored watching the film. So much was lost, and nothing of substance was added. It was like listening to a friend describe to you in detail a book you have already read without adding any insight of his own. At some point, you're better off walking away to re-read the damn thing yourself.

Thursday, February 5, 2009 Occult Detectives: John Silence

The late Sheila Hodgson was a noted author and playwright who wrote extensively for BBC Radio. Of particular interest to genre fans is her series of audio dramas, inspired by M.R. James' fragmentary Stories I Have Tried to Write, which feature James himself as protagonist.

Much less known is her series featuring Algernon Blackwood's supernatural detective, John Silence. I don't know how many of these were produced, and the usual references don't have much info. Camp of the Dog is the only audio drama I could find with the same title as one of the original John Silence tales. To further complicate things, the other play I have is based on a Blackwood story which originally had nothing to do with the "physician extraordinary". If anyone could pass along information on other John Silence dramas by Hodgson, I'd be most grateful.

John Silence would bristle at being labeled an occult detective. He referred to himself as a "psychic doctor", one who tended to the ailments of the spirit instead of that of the flesh. Silence hated the word "occult", and considered what we call the supernatural to be merely an extension of the so-called natural universe. All manner of bogies, from werewolves to ghosts, are merely manifestations of a spiritual illness in Silence's worldview.

In Hodgson's plays, Silence isn't the hero as much as an observer, an expositionary character who explains what is happening and why. This is in keeping with the original short stories by Blackwood, in which the "psychic doctor" was involved to various degrees, sometimes as protagonist, sometimes simply as a sympathetic audience to another's tale (as is the case in Ancient Sorceries, which was produced as a four-part reading by BBC7). Still, these dramas are spooky fun, and should be of interest to any fan of Hodgson's other works.

To download Sheila Hodgson's adaptations of Camp of the Dog and The Empty Sleeve, click on the link below to be taken to the Rapidshare download page. You will need WinRar or a similar program to decompress the file.

Two John Silence Plays by Sheila Hodgson

The six original John Silence stories by Algernon Blackwood are available in html format via the link below:

John Silence, Physician Extraordinary

And you can download seven of Hodgson's eight neo-James plays thanks to the generosity of the OTR Times Past community:

M.R. James at OTR Times Past

Wednesday, February 4, 2009 DVD Shuffle: The Scarecrow Rides!

As I mentioned in my post on the Austin Zombie Warning, I am listed in the acknowledgments of Jess Nevins' A Blazing World, an incredibly well-researched volume on Alan Moore's second League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series. I didn't do much to earn it. I simply pointed out that Nevins had mistaken Captain Clegg for Captain Blood in his notes on a Kevin O'Neill illustration of a gathering of (in)famous literary pirates.

This recollection of my trifling contribution to literary scholarship and the recent passing of cult icon Patrick McGoohan spurred me to once again dive into the DVD stack. Today's post is about the Reverend Doctor Syn, alias the Scarecrow.


Last November saw the release of Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh as part of the Walt Disney Treasures DVD line. Dr. Syn was a fondly-remembered mini-series that originally aired as three episodes of Disney's Wonderful World of Color in 1963; the episodes were edited into a feature-length film for theatrical release overseas and subsequent television showings. Those repeats of Dr. Syn were few and far between, and the show became something of a holy grail for swashbuckler fans, especially those who had thrilled to the Scarecrow's exploits as children.

I had never seen the series myself. The closest I ever came as a kid was eyeing the intriguing cover for the tie-in novelization in school book fair catalogs (I was Scholastic Books' bitch in those days). As an adult, I'd come across bootleg tapes and DVD's at cons and on-line, but balked at the prices charged for grainy nth-generation dupes of the theatrical cut. Rumors of a DVD release flew about for years, and so I waited patiently for one of them to pan out. Finally, a definite street date was announced by Disney Studios late last year.

The DVD release was limited to 39,500 copies and, according to Wikipedia, sold out in three weeks. I know I had trouble locating a copy just the day after it first hit store shelves, but it was an insignificant hurtle after all those years of waiting, of scouring eBay and the Disney Channel listings in vain. At last I had the opportunity to watch this heralded classic. I was finally going to see Number Six as a pirate cum mystery man in the swashbuckling days of yore. And I was going to see it as it had originally been broadcast, not hacked to pieces, in beautiful digital quality.

I made the mistake of watching Night Creatures first.


A little background is in order. Dr. Syn was the creation of actor and author Russell Thorndike. While Thorndike and his sister Sybil (who would eventually be knighted for her contributions to the British stage) were touring the United States with a theatrical company, a murder occurred just outside their hotel during a stay in South Carolina. Unable to sleep, the siblings entertained each other by telling gruesome tales into the wee hours. Thorndike set his story in Romney Marsh, a place familiar to the duo from the summer vacations they had spent there as children, and drew inspiration from the smugglers who had notoriously plied their trade in the area long ago. On that night, the Reverend Dr. Syn was born.

Thorndike originally intended to turn the story into a stage play, but the tale of the Scarecrow would first reach audiences as a novel published during World War One. Several years would pass before a theatrical adaptation was mounted, but Thorndike himself was able to play the title role. The popularity of the character induced Thorndike to write several prequels, and a successful film version starring George Arliss was produced by Gaumont-British in 1937.

In the early 1960's, a producer for the legendary Hammer Films decided a remake of the 1937 movie was in order and acquired the rights from the Rank Organisation, which had absorbed Gaumont-British. Unfortunately, Disney also had the bright idea of bringing back the good Reverend to the screen. The US studio had been inspired by the 1960 publication of Christopher Syn, an adaptation of one of the later Syn books written by American author William Buchanan with the approval of Thorndike. Disney acquired film and television rights from the publisher of the Syn books, who were apparently unaware of the Rank Organisation's involvement and their deal with Hammer. Things were further complicated by a tricky US copyright snafu that could have prevented Hammer from selling their film to the American market and Disney from distributing their version overseas.

Happily, a deal was worked out. Hammer would be able to film their remake of the Arliss film as they had intended, Disney would be able to create a series based on the novels as they had intended, and both studios would be able to distribute their products as they liked. All it took was for Hammer to change the identities of some of the principal characters - Doctor Syn became the Reverend Blyss - and Disney to drop the Captain Clegg background they hadn't been interested in anyway.
Despite being based on the same story, the two finished productions are a study in contrast.

Like the book that inspired it, Dr. Syn is a bloodless, episodic adventure tale aimed at youngsters. Disney introduces a wholly unnecessary subplot involving an American revolutionary arrested for preaching sedition against King George, and a rather perfunctory romance between the Squire's daughter and one of the soldiers assigned to capture the Scarecrow. While the series was shot on authentic locations - Disney even paid for the restoration of the church used for the good doctor's congregation - these feel less real and more sterile, more... Disney.

Hammer's film, known as Captain Clegg in Europe and Night Creatures in the US, is dark and atmospheric, perfectly in keeping with what was originally written as a macabre thriller. The narrative is much more focused, and the romantic subplot involving the Squire's son and a local girl actually adds to the story rather than distract from it. The production is mostly studio-bound, but the Bray Studio sets have a veneer of grime that makes them feel lived-in. As a result, they come off as far more organic and believable than the freshly scrubbed locations used for Dr. Syn.

The biggest problem with the Disney series is that it doesn't end as much as stop. Nothing is really resolved in the final episode. Maintaining the status quo is expected for a weekly television show, but it really hurts a three-episode mini-series; for a feature film, it's simply unacceptable. Night Creatures' rousing climax stands out all the more in comparison.


Cast as the lead of Night Creatures was the wonderful Peter Cushing. While he is known as a horror movie icon, Cushing was a swashbuckler at heart. You only have to see his energetic performances as Van Helsing for evidence of this - the athletic climaxes of Horror of Dracula and Brides of Dracula, and the battle scene from 7 Golden Vampires in which the 57-year-old actor hurtles himself backwards into a campfire! Cushing was excited by the Syn remake to the point of writing his own (unused) screenplay for the project. Viewing the film today, you can clearly see that Cushing is having the time of his life. His performance is full of little flourishes and nuances that really bring the character to life.

In contrast, McGoohan's Syn is rather bland and unremarkable. This may have been a conscious decision to better contrast with his flamboyant alter ego, but we're still stuck with a rather dour hero much of the time. McGoohan's Scarecrow, on the other hand, is lively and fun, speaking in a fantastic croak when barking orders and making dire threats to both enemies and bothersome allies (though the script consistantly undercuts the effect with Syn's admissions to his lieutenants that he would never, ever do such horrid things).


McGoohan's performance as the Scarecrow is aided by a phenomenal costume. His mask is a thing of gruesome beauty, and the smuggler's cloak is actually a large, tattered coat with a wooden crossbar still struck through the sleeves. Others have commented on the similarity between the Scarecrow's mask and the make-up used for the Joker in The Dark Knight; between that and the choice of villains in Batman Begins, I wouldn't be surprised if the Nolan boys had been fans of the Disney series as youngsters.


A scarecrow does appear in Night Creatures, but only as a simple disguise utilized by one of the Reverend Blyss' lieutenants while playing look-out. All right, so it doesn't look nearly as bad-ass, but that's Oliver Reed under there and he could still kick your ass from beyond the grave.


Had I encountered Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh as a child, I probably would have been one of its many admirers. However, viewed for the first time as an adult, it comes across as rather tepid, even in comparison to other Hollywood swashbucklers of the time. I did enjoy it, and it has several admirable qualities. It's just that I enjoyed Night Creatures much more, and the back-to-back viewings underscored what I saw as Syn's flaws.

In a perfect world, we would have a feature that combined the fantastic costumes from the Disney production with the lusty zeal of the Hammer film. Disney now has all the movie and television rights to Thorndike's creation locked up tighter than a Mousketeer's virginity; we can only hope they revisit the property soon, hopefully with a darker edge in wake of the successful Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In the meantime, however, I don't see myself going back to Dr. Syn as often as I will Night Creatures.

That doesn't mean you can have my DVD tin, though.

Can you believe the old charlatan claimed that Syn was a true story?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRINT

Doctor Syn (Russell Thorndike, 1915): My copy is a Romney Bookshop edition published in 2004, with a rather dorky cover painting.

Little Shoppe of Horrors #17: An obvious labor of love for all involved, this small press fanzine is devoted to the films of Hammer Studios. Copies of issue 17, an in-depth look at Captain Clegg, can be ordered here.


FILMS

Night Creatures, aka Captain Clegg (1962): Available on DVD as Universal's Hammer Horror Series set, along with seven other Hammer flicks, including the bona fide classics Brides of Dracula and Curse of the Werewolf. Less than twenty bucks at DeepDiscount.com. Why the hell don't you own this already?

Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (1964): The collector's tin is currently available on eBay and everywhere else overpriced goods can be found.

The original 1937 version of Doctor Syn is not currently available on DVD. I understand I'm not missing much, but the completist in me chafes.


WEB

WikPedia article on Doctor Syn

Nightriders: This site hosts the entire Doctor Syn series in HTML format! There are free pdf versions available at another site, but they're "protected" by a watermark that renders the pages all but unreadable.

Hollywood Prop and Costumes: This site offers reproductions of the costumes used for the Disney version of Dr. Syn, as well as photos autographed by Patrick McGoohan. I'd order one of the latter in a heartbeat if I was still employed. Damn you, global financial crisis!

Some of the movie posters and lobby cards used here were yoinked from http://www.ministryofterror.com/index.html and http://www.hammerfilms.com/

And while I didn't come across it until after this post had been written, I have found what claims to be the Official Website of Dr. Syn. The site looks to have lots of info on Romney Marsh itself, the biannual "day of Syn" celebrations, and contributions by local artists.


AUDIO

Great Lives - Peter Cushing: An episode of the BBC Radio biography series, in which current figures of note select persons they believe to have led a "great life". This episode focuses on beloved Hammer star Peter Cushing, as chosen by comedian and author Mark Gatiss. You can download this program in mp3 format by clicking on the Rapidshare link below:

Great Lives - Peter Cushing