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Rick Travis, CRPA and Bill Gaines, Gaines & Associates discuss their continued fight for your 1st and 2nd amendment rights. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bill Gaines, GainesAndAssociates.net, joins Greg to discuss Lions & Bears in the state of California.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bill Gaines, Gaines & Associates is Rick's guest.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bill Gaines, Gaines & Associates and Steve Childs, Wildlife Biologist join Rick to discuss coyotes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bill Gaines, Gaines and Associates joins Rick to discuss the state of wildlife hunting and fishing in California.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Your Gun rights in California vs. Gavin Newsome. Bill Gaines, Gaines and Associates, joins Rick to discuss. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bill Gaines, Gaines and Associates, joins Rick to discuss Prop 4 and other issues gun owners need to know.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bill Gaines, Gaines & Associates, joins Rick to discuss the end of California Legislature's session and the bills passed and upheld.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bill Gaines, Gaines & Associates joins Rick to discuss the ups and downs of the California Fish and Game Commission.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bill Gaines, Gaines & Associates, is this weeks guest discussing wildlife concerns.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bill Gaines, Gaines & Associates discusses proper and sustainable wildlife management with Rick. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Special guest Bill Gaines from Gaines & Associates joins Rick to discuss hunting regulations. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
TSV host Fred Bird is joined live from the recent National Assembly of Sportsmens Caucuses summit by Keely Hopkins, Bill Gaines, and (new to the show!) National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) Government Affairs Director Jake McGuigan to dive into a preview of the firearm policy fights on the horizon for this year. The group digs into the recent Merchant Code issues, why it is wrong to track and violate the policy of consumers simply for shopping at a store that carries guns, and why sportsmen and sportswomen need to pay close attention to these fights in their states and at the national level. Get the FREE Sportsmen's Voice e-publication in your inbox every Monday: www.congressionalsportsmen.org/newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Si je vous demande de penser à un super-héros de chez DC Comics, il y a fort à parier que Batman, Superman ou Wonder Woman vous viendront à l'esprit avant Green Arrow. Aujourd'hui, on parle justement des aventures de Green Arrow par Jack Kirby, qui n'ont pas du tout plu à DC Comics ! La période séparant l'Âge d'Or de la bande dessinée américaine de l'Âge d'Argent est aussi riche que troublée. Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les ventes des titres mettant en scène super-héros et super-héroïnes déclinent aux États-Unis. Les justiciers costumés n'ont plus la côte, et le genre super-héroïque, jusqu'alors prédominant, est peu à peu remplacé par d'autres. La romance, l'horreur, le western et la science-fiction évincent les ersatz de Superman et de Batman des kiosques à journaux, tandis que leurs modèles peinent à garder la tête hors de l'eau, et que les artistes doivent s'adapter pour continuer à gagner leur croûte. Dès 1947, Joe Simon et Jack Kirby, déjà derrière la création de Captain America, avaient pressenti la transmutation du marché avec leur titre Young Romance, présentant des aventures sentimentales prétendues réelles, participant grandement à l'évolution des tendances. Mais s'estimant de plus en plus spoliés par les éditeurs, Simon et Kirby décident de lancer leur propre maison d'édition, Mainline Comics, en 1953. Au programme : quatre titres surfant chacun sur un grand courant de l'époque. Malheureusement pour eux, ils ont assurément choisi le pire moment possible pour initier leur projet. À partir de 1950, l'éditeur EC Comics, avec à sa tête Bill Gaines, s'est engagé dans une surenchère d'horreur gore et de violence morbide pour attirer les jeunes lecteurs en manque de sensations fortes, appâtés par des couvertures toujours plus choquantes. Généralement accolées à un discours politique et social, certes implicite, mais extrêmement critique envers la fameuse “American way of life”, les histoires de EC Comics deviennent pour certains et certaines l'incarnation du danger représenté par la bande dessinée, qui pervertirait la jeunesse en la poussant au crime. La panique morale autour des comics de crimes et d'horreur, entretenue par des figures publiques comme le politicien Estes Kefauver et le psychiatre Fredric Wertham, devenu célèbre chez les fans de super-héros pour son livre Seduction of the Innocent, mènera à la création du Comics Code Authority, et surtout à une crise éditoriale majeure, qui verra disparaître près des deux tiers des bandes dessinées publiées à l'époque. Et qui dit moins de comics commercialisés dit moins de travail pour les imprimeurs et les distributeurs. Ce marché fragilisé, dont les différents acteurs font faillite les uns après les autres, couplé à des soucis juridiques avec leur précédent employeur, Crestwood Publications, forcera Jack Kirby et Joe Simon à baisser le rideau de Mainline en 1956, avec seulement quelques publications concrètes au compteur. Cet échec aura épuisé les deux artistes sur tous les plans et émoussé leur longue et solide collaboration. Tandis que Joe Simon décide de quitter le monde du neuvième art pour celui de la publicité et de la presse magazine, Jack Kirby rejoint les rangs de National Comics, qui deviendra DC Comics, avec une toute nouvelle série de science-fiction : Challengers of the Unknown. Une série souvent attribuée au seul génie de Kirby, mais sans doute nourrie de ses derniers échanges avec Joe Simon, et également des idées du scénariste Dave Wood, l'un des créateurs de Animal Man. 1956 est une année charnière pour le genre super-héroïque, la banqueroute de Mainline coïncidant fortuitement avec le retour des héros costumés sur le devant de la scène, en partie à l'initiative de DC Comics. Dans le quatrième numéro du périodique Showcase, l'éditeur présente une nouvelle version de son bolide écarlate, The Flash. Le succès est au rendez-vous, et si le retour en grâce des surhommes costumés va prendre encore quelques années, DC va amorcer un rafraîchissement créatif et éditorial de plusieurs de ses super-héros, dont bon nombre sont cantonnés à des anthologies comme World's Finest, Adventure Comics ou More Fun Comics, faute d'intérêt du lectorat. C'est notamment le cas de Green Arrow, présent à la fois au sommaire de World's Finest Comics depuis 1941 et de Adventure Comics depuis 1946. Il faut dire que le personnage, loin d'avoir rencontré le succès d'un Batman ou d'un Superman, n'a jamais eu droit à une publication à son nom, et a moins souvent l'honneur d'être représenté en couverture. Créé en 1941 par le scénariste Mort Weisinger et le dessinateur George Papp dans les pages de More Fun Comics #73, ce héros à gadget, expert en archerie, s'inspire à la fois de Batman, de Robin des Bois et du serial The Green Archer, diffusé dans les cinémas américain à partir de 1940. C'est dans More Fun Comics #89, publié en 1943, que les origines de Green Arrow et de son sidekick adolescent Speedy nous sont racontées pour la première fois. Oliver Queen, collectionneur d'armes et d'objets des peuples natifs américains, rencontre Roy Harper, un jeune orphelin élevé par une tribu amérindienne isolée après un crash d'avion dont il est le seul survivant. Après avoir déjoué les plans de pilleurs d'antiquités, nos deux héros, tous deux archers accomplis, décident de faire équipe pour combattre le crime, finançant leur croisade avec l'or d'un trésor qu'ils ont découvert dans la réserve indienne. Une origin story qui n'a pas grand-chose à voir avec celle que nous connaissons actuellement, mais on va y revenir. En 1946, le personnage et son acolyte sont transférés de More Fun Comics à Adventure Comics, où son co-créateur George Papp dessinera pendant de nombreuses années ses aventures, accompagné du scénariste Ed Herron, notamment considéré comme le créateur de Red Skull dans les pages de Captain America. Seulement, en 1958, quand George Papp succède à John Sikela au dessin sur Superboy, Green Arrow se trouve dépourvu de dessinateur attitré. L'éditeur Jack Schiff, connaissant les capacités de productions de Jack Kirby sur Challengers of the Unknown, lui propose de reprendre le titre. Kirby n'a alors jamais lu une seule aventure de Green Arrow, mais il a besoin d'argent, alors il accepte et lit quelques épisodes fournis par Schiff pour se faire une idée. Peu convaincu par les illustrés en question, Jack Kirby se dit qu'il pourra quand même faire quelque chose du personnage, pour peu qu'on lui laisse un peu de liberté. Et si cela va s'avérer beaucoup plus difficile qu'il le croit, l'artiste va quand même donner un sacré coup de jeune à Oliver Queen. La première histoire de Green Arrow dessinée par Kirby paraît dans Adventure Comics #250, durant l'été 1958. Écrite par Bill Finger, le co-créateur de Batman, “The Green Arrows of the World” nous permet de découvrir que l'archer vert n'est pas le seul justicier à utiliser un arc et des flèches, bien au contraire. Ayant fait des émules partout sur la planète, Oliver Queen reçoit la visite de différents homologues venus du Japon, de France, ou encore du Mexique. Il y a là un recyclage évident d'une thématique déjà exploitée par Batman quelques années plus tôt, notamment avec l'épisode intitulé “Batmen of All-Nations”, publié en 1955. C'est à partir du numéro suivant, avec “The Case of the Super-Arrows”, que la patte de Jack Kirby commence réellement à se faire sentir. Flèche Verte et Speedy s'y aventurent sur un territoire jusqu'alors rarement exploré au cours de leurs péripéties, celui de la science-fiction. Durant onze épisodes ; écrits alternativement par Ed Herron et Dave Wood, et largement enrichis par les idées de Jack Kirby ; le personnage de Green Arrow s'éloigne peu à peu de l'univers dans lequel il macère depuis sa création pour explorer d'autres mondes et d'autres dimensions, comme dans l'histoire “Prisoners of Dimension Zero”, dont la publication en deux parties est plutôt avant-gardiste pour l'époque. Avec “Green Arrow's First Case”, dans Adventure Comics #256, Jack Kirby et Ed Herron revisitent les origines du super-héros de Star City, oubliant son côté Robin des Bois et son rapport plus que discutable aux natifs américains pour en faire une sorte de Robinson. Désormais, le playboy milliardaire Oliver Queen est devenu Green Arrow après être tombé par-dessus bord lors d'un voyage dans les mers du Sud. Parvenant à atteindre Starfish Island, un îlot vierge et hostile, Oliver y survit en recyclant ses anciens vêtements pour se confectionner un équipement et devient un excellent archer à force d'entraînement. Il utilise alors la végétation pour se fabriquer une nouvelle tenue, ce qui permet de justifier la couleur verte de son accoutrement de vigilant masqué une fois revenu à la civilisation. Il y a quelque chose de particulièrement symbolique dans cette nouvelle origin story, où un jeune occidental fortuné quitte son costume pour renouer avec la nature et repartir à zéro autant humainement que socialement. Certes, la recette n'est pas des plus surprenantes, mais ça sonne toujours mieux que de s'enrichir en volant le patrimoine amérindien, si bien que cette version restera la base de toutes les réécritures suivantes, jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Contrairement à ce à quoi on pourrait s'attendre, les responsables éditoriaux de DC Comics ; Mort Weisinger, le co-créateur de Green Arrow, en tête ; n'apprécient pas du tout l'approche de Jack Kirby. Pour eux, le personnage n'a rien à faire dans des récits de science-fiction et, pour d'obscures raisons, ils préfèrent visiblement conserver son statut de "sous-Batman avec un arc". Kirby se fâche finalement avec Jack Schiff, pour une sombre histoire autour du strip Sky Masters, publié dans la presse, et c'est Lee Elias, connu pour ses provocantes couvertures gores chez Harvey, qui le remplace pour dessiner Green Arrow. Jack Kirby retourne chez Atlas, qui prendra très bientôt le nom de Marvel Comics, et ne remettra plus les pieds chez DC Comics avant 1970, pour développer son Quatrième Monde dans des séries comme Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, New Gods, ou Mister Miracle, y réutilisant notamment des concepts esquissés dans ses épisodes de Green Arrow. À partir de 1961, avec Stan Lee et Steve Ditko, Kirby va œuvrer à la création de pratiquement toutes les figures majeures de l'univers Marvel, qui continuent de nos jours à vivre moult aventures sur le papier et remplissent les salles de cinéma de blockbuster en blockbuster, depuis plus de deux décennies. L'artiste s'en donnera à cœur joie dans les pages des Fantastic Four ; sorte d'évolution super-héroïque des Challengers de l'Inconnu ; ou de Thor, dans lesquelles la célèbre "Méthode Marvel" de Stan Lee lui laissera une très grande autonomie créative. Que seraient devenus Green Arrow et l'univers DC à l'orée du Silver Age si le Roi des Comics était resté chez l'éditeur ? Se souviendrait-on d'Oliver Queen autrement que comme d'un second couteau utilisant des flèches-gadgets un brin kitsch ? Malgré les travaux de Neal Adams et Dennis O'Neil, de Mike Grell, Phil Hester, Kevin Smith, Jock, ou Jeff Lemire, et la longévité non négligeable de la série télévisée Arrow de la CW, l'archer vert reste, encore de nos jours, loin derrière la sainte trinité de DC comics en termes de renommée et d'impact sur la culture populaire. Pourtant, découvrir, ou redécouvrir, les aventures de Green Arrow, c'est aussi traverser les différentes périodes de l'histoire des comic books et en appréhender les tentatives et les tendances sous un autre jour. Une expérience que je vous recommande si vous voulez ajouter une corde à votre arc ! N'hésitez pas à partager cet article sur les réseaux sociaux s'il vous a plu ! Recevez mes articles, podcasts et vidéos directement dans votre boîte mail, sans intermédiaire ni publicité, en vous abonnant gratuitement ! Get full access to CHRIS - POP CULTURE & COMICS at chrisstup.substack.com/subscribe
Dennis is joined via Zoom by one of his heroes, comedy writer Dick DeBartolo who worked for both Mad Magazine and The Match Game TV show...at the same time! Dick talks about how he landed both jobs, how they actually complimented each other and what it was like to go back and forth between the two offices in Manhattan. Recalling Match Game, Dick describes how dry the questions were when he started and how it was his idea to make the questions silly, which basically saved the show. Dennis also has lots of questions for Dick about his beloved Mad magazine, like who exactly was it for? And how did they create parodies of movies that were still in theaters without VHS tapes to refer to? And what does one of Dick's Mad magazine features look like typed on a page? Dick also talks about his personal life and recalls how he met his now-husband Dennis at the gym back in 1980...because of Mad. Other topics include: Dick's hilariously tender relationship with Mad founder Bill Gaines, Dick and Bill's secret Statue of Liberty spy adventure, Gay Sundays at Studio 54, what game show producing legends Mark Goodson and Bill Todman were like behind the scenes, why celebrities like Michael J. Fox, June Lockhart and Viggo Mortenson loved being parodied in Mad and that time Dick pretended to be Alfred E. Neuman's campaign manager when Alfred was running for president. More next week in Part 2. https://gizwiz.me/
Most comic book fans have at least a passing knowledge of EC Comics and their role in the creation of the Comics Code of Authority. But many don't realize how ahead of their time the company was in so many areas, nor that the father and son who made EC run also play important roles in American comics history.Join me as we give a quick and dirty look at the horror comic legends: EC Comics!---------------------------------------------------Big thanks to Dmitry Taras for our Spooktober theme, "Dark Mysterious Halloween Night"Check out his YouTube channel and you can find free use music from him on Pixabay.com!---------------------------------------------------Check out Dreampass and all their killer tracks on Spotify!---------------------------------------------------Join the Patreon to help us keep the lights on, and internet connected! https://www.patreon.com/tctwl---------------------------------------------------Listen to my other podcast!TFD: NerdcastAnd I am also part of the team over at...I Read Comic Books!---------------------------------------------------Want to try out all the sweet gigs over on Fiverr.com? Click on the link below and sign up!https://go.fiverr.com/visit/?bta=323533&brand=fiverrcpa---------------------------------------------------Follow on Instagram!The Comics That We LoveFollow on Tiktok!The Comics that We LoveFollow on Twitter!@Z_Irish_Red
Tales from the Crypt was an American bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics from 1950 to 1955, producing 27 issues (the first issue with the title was #20, previously having been International Comics (#1–#5); International Crime Patrol (#6); Crime Patrol (#7–#16) and The Crypt of Terror (#17–#19) for a total of 46 issues in the series). Along with its sister titles, The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt was popular, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s comic books came under attack from parents, clergymen, schoolteachers and others who believed the books contributed to illiteracy and juvenile delinquency. In April and June 1954, highly publicized congressional subcommittee hearings on the effects of comic books upon children left the industry shaken. With the subsequent imposition of a highly restrictive Comics Code, EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines cancelled Tales from the Crypt and its two companion horror titles, along with the company's remaining crime and science fiction series in September 1954. Since their demise, all EC Comics titles have been reprinted at various times. Stories from the horror series have been adapted into other media, including a 1972 film and a television series that aired on HBO from 1989 to 1996. The later spawned two films—Demon Knight (1995) and Bordello of Blood (1996)—as well as a children's animated series, a game show, and a radio series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
TSV Host Fred Bird is joined by Keely Hopkins, CSF Manager of the Northwestern states, and Bill Gaines. The crew dive into California's AB 28 Firearms and Ammunition: Excise Tax, and AB 2571 Firearms: advertising to minors. Discussed in this episode: how laws like AB 28 (and others like it) could threaten the fabric of conservation funding in this nation with so-called ‘sin taxes' and how we can challenge them without harming the Federal excise taxes that fund conservation. They also take a look at how legislations like AB 2571 jeopardize the future of conservation and the sporting community. Get the FREE Sportsmen's Voice e-publication in your inbox every Monday: www.congressionalsportsmen.org/newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Platicamos con el gran Sergio Aragonés, cartonista de la revista MAD desde hace 60 años. Una leyenda en el mundo del cómic y las revistas de humor.En su juventud, Sergio y algunos amigos hicieron una revista parecida a la revista MAD llamada La Mano; estudió pantomima para conocer los movimientos del cuerpo y plasmarlo en sus dibujos; llegó a las oficinas de MAD en Nueva York, cuando ya había decidido regresar a México porque no recibía oportunidades; vivió, literalmente, en las oficinas de MAD por algunos días; viajó junto con los editores, escritores y dibujantes de la revista a Tahití, Marruecos, Italia, México, España y muchos lugares más; en esta entrevista nos habla del editor Bill Gaines, de los dibujantes Mort Drucker, Don Martín, Dave Berg, Antonio Prohías, Dick DeBartollo y muchos más, además de su nacimiento en España, para luego refugiarse junto a su familia en Francia y posteriormente llegar a México donde vivió su infancia y juventud.
Dr. Bill Gaines, wildlife biologist and Executive Director of the Washington Conservation Science Institute, has been studying wildlife, including (and especially) bears since the late 1980's and, wow, has he had some adventures! In this episode, Dr. Gaines shares his experiences and understandings that have come about through his research studies on the ecology, habitat, and population of black bears and interior grizzly bears in the North Cascades over the last three decades. This summer (2023), the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service are expected to release a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that includes a response to initial public comments (received in 2022) and a range of options for how to proceed with an effort to restore a grizzly bear population to the North Cascades Ecosystem. If this podcast piques your interest and you would like to further your understanding about grizzly bear restoration in the North Cascades, the DEIS, and how to be involved in the public process, here are some sources to find more information: Friends of the North Cascades Grizzly Bear: https://www.northcascadesgrizzly.org/ National Park Service: 2022 North Cascades Ecosystem Grizzly Bear Restoration Plan/Environmental Impact Statement: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectID=112008 US Fish & Wildlife Service: North Cascades Grizzly Bear Restoration EIS: https://www.fws.gov/project/north-cascades-grizzly-bear-restoration-eis Dr. Bill Gaines is the Executive Director of Washington Conservation Science Institute. Learn more about him and his organization at: https://waconservationscience.com/ This podcast is produced by Okanogan Highlands Alliance. The core of OHA's mission is to encourage and support education and public participation in decisions involving the integrity, sustainability, and prosperity of our community and the environment. For more information or to support OHA, visit our website: okanoganhighlands.org
This week's episode takes a look back at the career of trailblazing independent filmmaker Robert Downey, father of Robert Downey, Jr., and his single foray into the world of Hollywood filmmaking, Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we follow up on a movie based on a series of articles from a humor magazine that was trying to build their brand name by slapping their name on movies with a movie that was sponsored by a humor magazine trying to build their brand name by slapping their name on movies not unlike the other humor magazine had been doing but ended up removing their name from the movie, and boy is brain already fried and we're not even a minute into the episode. We're talking about Robert Downey's 1980 comedy Up the Academy. But, as always, before we get to Up the Academy, let's hit the backstory. If you know the name Robert Downey, it's likely because you know his son. Robert Downey, Jr. You know, Iron Man. Yes, Robert Downey, Jr. is a repo baby. Maybe you've seen the documentary he made about his dad, Sr., that was released by Netflix last year. But it's more than likely you've never heard of Robert Downey, Sr., who, ironically, was a junior himself like his son. Robert Downey was born Robert John Elias, Jr. in New York City in 1936, the son of a model and a manager of hotels and restaurants. His parents would divorce when he was young, and his mom would remarry while Robert was still in school. Robert Elias, Jr. would take the last name of his stepfather when he enlisted in the Army, in part because was wanted to get away from home but he was technically too young to actually join the Army. He would invent a whole new persona for himself, and he would, by his own estimate, spend the vast majority of his military career in the stockade, where he wrote his first novel, which still has never been published. After leaving the Army, Downey would spend some time playing semi-pro baseball, not quite good enough to go pro, spending his time away from the game writing plays he hoped to take, if not to Broadway, at least off-Broadway. But he would not make his mark in the arts until 1961, when Downey started to write and direct low-budget counterculture short films, starting with Ball's Bluff, about a Civil War soldier who wakes up in New York City's Central Park a century later. In 1969, he would write and direct a satirical film about the only black executive at a Madison Avenue advertising firm who is, through a strange circumstance, becomes the head of the firm when its chairman unexpectedly passes away. Featuring a cameo by Mel Brooks Putney Swope was the perfect anti-establishment film for the end of that decade, and the $120k film would gross more than $2.75m during its successful year and a half run in theatres. 1970's Pound, based on one of Downey's early plays, would be his first movie to be distributed by a major distributor, although it was independently produced outside the Hollywood system. Several dogs, played by humans, are at a pound, waiting to be euthanized. Oh, did I forget to mention it was a comedy? The film would be somewhat of a success at the time, but today, it's best known as being the acting debut of the director's five year old son, Robert Downey, Jr., although the young boy would be credited as Bob Downey. 1972's Greaser Palace was part of an early 1970s trend of trippy “acid Westerns,” like Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo and Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie. Character actor Allan Arbus plays Jesse, a man with amnesia who heals the sick, resurrects the dead and tap dances on water on the American frontier. It would be the first movie Downey would make with a million dollar budget. The critical consensus of the film at the time was not positive, although Jay Cocks, a critic for Time Magazine who would go on to be a regular screenwriter for Martin Scorsese in the 1980s, would proclaim the film to be “the most adventurous movie of the year.” The film was not a hit, and it would be decades before it would be discovered and appreciated by the next generation of cineastes. After another disappointing film, 1975's Moment to Moment, which would later be retitled Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight in order to not be confused with the 1978 movie of the same name starring John Travolta and Lily Tomlin that really, truly stunk, Downey would take some time off from filmmaking to deal with his divorce from his first wife and to spend more time with his son Robert and daughter Allyson. By 1978, Robert Downey was ready to get back to work. He would get a job quickly helping Chuck Barris write a movie version of Barris' cult television show, The Gong Show, but that wasn't going to pay the bills with two teenagers at home. What would, though, is the one thing he hadn't done yet in movies… Direct a Hollywood film. Enter Mad Magazine. In 1978, Mad Magazine was one of the biggest humor magazines in America. I had personally discovered Mad in late 1977, when my dad, stepmom and I were on a cross country trip, staying with friends outside Detroit, the day before my tenth birthday, when I saw an issue of Mad at a local grocery store, with something Star Wars-y on its cover. I begged my dad to give me the sixty cents to buy it, and I don't think I missed another issue for the next decade. Mad's biggest competition in the humor magazine game was National Lampoon, which appealed to a more adult funny bone than Mad. In 1978, National Lampoon saw a huge boost in sales when the John Landis-directed comedy Animal House, which had the name of the magazine in the title, became an unexpected smash hit at the box office. Warner Brothers, the media conglomerate who happened to own Mad Magazine, was eager to do something similar, and worked with Mad's publisher, Bill Gaines, to find the right script that could be molded into a Mad Magazine movie, even if, like Animal House, it wouldn't have any real connection to the magazine itself. They would find that script in The Brave Young Men of Weinberg, a comedy script by Tom Patchett and Jay Tarses, a pair of television comedy writers on shows like The Carol Burnett Show, The Sandy Duncan Show, The Bob Newhart Show and The Tony Randall Show, who had never sold a movie script before. The story would follow the misadventures of four teenage boys who, for different reasons, depend on each other for their very survival when they end up at the same military academy. Now, of all the research I've done for this episode, the one very important aspect of the production I was never able to find out was exactly how Robert Downey became involved in the film. Again, he had never made a Hollywood movie before. He had only made one movie with a budget of a million dollars. His movies were satirical and critical of society in general. This was not a match made in heaven. But somehow, someone at Warner Brothers thought he'd be the right director for the film, and somehow, Downey didn't disagree. Unlike Animal House, Downey and Warners didn't try to land a known commodity like John Belushi to play one of the four leads. In fact, all four of the leads, Wendell Brown, Tommy Citera, Joseph Hutchinson, and Ralph Macchio, would all be making their feature debuts. But there would be some familiar faces in the film. Ron Liebman, who was a familiar face from such films has Slaughterhouse-Five, Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood and Norma Rae, would play the head of the Academy. Tom Poston, who played Mindy's downstairs neighbor on Mork and Mindy, plays what would now be considered to be a rather offensive gay caricature as the guy who handles the uniforms of the cadets, Antonio Fargas, best known as Huggy Bear on Starsky and Hutch but who had previously worked with Downey on Putney Swope and Pound, as the Coach, and Barbara Bach, who had starred as Anya Amasova in the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. The $5m film would begin production in Salina, Kansas, on September 17th, 1979, still using the title The Brave Young Men of Weinberg. The primary shooting location would be the St. John's Military School, which was still functioning while the film was in production, and would use most of the 144 students as extras during the shoot. The film would shoot for nine weeks without much incident, and the cast and crew would be home in time to enjoy Thanksgiving with their friends and family. Unlike Animal House, the makers of The Brave Young Men of Weinberg did attempt to tie the movie into the magazine that would be presenting the film. At the very end of the movie, the magazine's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, shows up on the side of the road, to wave goodbye to people and deliver his signature line, “What, Me Worry?” in a thought bubble that leads into the end credits. The person wearing the not quite realistic looking Neuman head gear, fourteen year old Scott Shapiro, was the son of the executive vice president of worldwide production at Warner Brothers. After the first of the year, as Downey worked on his edit of the film, the studio decided to change the title from The Brave Young Men of Weinberg to Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy. Bill Gaines, the publisher of Mad Magazine, suggested a slightly different title, Mad Magazine Completely Disassociates Itself from Up the Academy, but the studio decided that was too long for theater marquees. But we'll come back to that in a moment. Warner Brothers set a June 6, 1980 release for the film, and Downey would finish his cut of the film by the end of March. A screening on the Warners lot in early April did not go well. Ron Liebman hated the film so much, he demanded that Warners completely remove his name from everything associated with the film. His name would not appear on the poster, the newspaper ads, the television commercials, the lobby cards, the press kit, or even in the movie itself. Bill Gaines would hate it to, such much in fact that he really did try to disassociate the magazine from the film. In a 1983 interview with The Comics Journal, Gaines would explain without much detail that there were a number of things he had objected to in the script that he was told would not be shot and not end up in the final film that were shot and did end up in the final film. But he wouldn't be able to get the magazine's name off the movie before it opened in theatres. Now, one of the problems with trying to research how well films did in 1980 is that you really have only two sources for grosses, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, and they didn't always report national grosses every week, depending on outside factors. It just hadn't the national sport it's been since, say, 1983. So when Up the Academy opened in theatres on June 6th, we don't have a full idea of how many theatres it played in nationwide, or how much it grossed. The closest thing we do have for this Variety's listing of the top movies of the week based on a limited selection of showcase theatres in the top 20 markets. So we know that the film played at 7 showcase screens in New York City that weekend, grossing $175k, and in Los Angeles on 15 showcase screens, grossing $149k. But we also know, thanks to newspaper ads in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times that the film was playing in 11 theatres in the New York Metro area, and in 30 theatres in the Los Angeles Metro area, so those listed grosses are merely a snapshot and not the whole picture. According to Variety's limited tracking of major market showcase theatres for the week, Up the Academy was the second highest grossing film of the week, bringing in $729k from 82 theatres. And according to their chart's side notes, this usually accounts for about 25% of a movie's national gross, if a film is playing in wide release around the entire country. In its second week, Up the Academy would place ninth on that showcase theatre listing, with $377k from 87 theatres. But by the time Variety did bring back proper national grosses in the film's third week of release, there would be no mention of Up the Academy in those listings, as Warners by this time had bigger fish to handle, namely Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Shining, and Bronco Billy, their Clint Eastwood movie for the year. In that showcase theatre listing, though, Up the Academy had fallen to 16th place, with $103k from 34 theatres. In fact, there is no publicly available record of how many theatres Up the Academy played in during its theatrical run, and it wouldn't be until the 1981 Warner Brothers 10-K annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Up the Academy had earned $10m from American movie theatres. If studios get about 55% of the box office grosses in rental fees, that would put the $5m film in a very good position to be profitable, depending on how much was spent on P&A, prints and advertising. The film wasn't an Animal House-level hit, but it wasn't exactly the bomb many have painted it to be. After Up the Academy, two of the actors, Wendell Brown and Joseph Hutchinson, would never act in another movie, although, billed as Hutch Parker, the latter would produce six X-Men related movies between 2013 and 2019, including Logan. Tommy Citera would make two more movies until he left acting in 1988. And Ralph Macchio would, of course, go on to play Daniel LaRusso, the Karate Kid, in a career-defining role that he's still playing nearly forty years later. Robert Downey would make another wacky comedy, called Moonbeam, in 1982. Co-written with Richard Belzer, Moonbeam would feature a fairly interesting cast including Zack Norman, Tammy Grimes, Michael J. Pollard, Liz Torres and Mr. Belzer, and tells the story of a New York cable television station that becomes world famous when they accidentally bounce their signal off the moon. But the film would not get released until October 1986, in one theatre in New York City for one week. It couldn't even benefit from being able to promote Robert Downey, Jr., who in the ensuing years had started to build an acting career by being featured in John Sayles' Baby It's You, Fritz Kiersch's Tuff Turf, John Hughes' Weird Science, and the Rodney Dangerfield movie Back to School, as well as being a member of the cast of Saturday Night Live for a year. There's be sporadic work in television, working on shows like Matlock and The Twilight Zone, but what few movies he could get made would be pale shadows of her earlier, edgier work. Even with his son regularly taking supporting roles in his dad's movies to help the old man out, movies like Rented Lips and Too Much Sun would be critically panned and ignored by audiences. His final movie as a writer and director, Hugo Pool, would gross just $13k when it was released in December 1997, despite having a cast that included Patrick Dempsey, Richard Lewis, Malcolm McDowell, Alyssa Milano, Cathy Moriarty and Sean Penn, along with Junior. Downey would also continue to act in other director's movies, including two written and directed by one of his biggest fans, Paul Thomas Anderson. Downey would play Burt, the studio manager, in Boogie Nights, and the WDKK Show director in Magnolia. Anderson adored Downey so much, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker would sit down with Downey for a four-part conversation filmed for the Criterion Company in 2013. Robert Downey would pass away in July 2021, a curious footnote in the history of cinema, mostly because of the superstar he sired. Most of his movies are hard to find on video, and nearly impossible to find on streaming services, outside of a wonderful two disc DVD set issued by Criterion's Eclipse specialty label and several titles streaming on The Criterion Channel. Outside of Up the Academy, which is available to rent or purchase from Amazon, Apple TV and several other streaming services, you can find Putney Swope, Greaser's Palace and Too Much Sun on several of the more popular streaming services, but the majority of them are completely missing in action. You can also learn more about Robert Downey in Sr., a documentary streaming on Netflix produced by Robert Downey, Jr. where the son recounts the life and career of his recently passed father, alongside Paul Thomas Anderson, Alan Arkin, and mega-producer Norman Lear. Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 107, on John Landis's underrated 1985 comedy Into the Night, is released. Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode. The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment. Thank you again. Good night.
This week's episode takes a look back at the career of trailblazing independent filmmaker Robert Downey, father of Robert Downey, Jr., and his single foray into the world of Hollywood filmmaking, Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. On this episode, we follow up on a movie based on a series of articles from a humor magazine that was trying to build their brand name by slapping their name on movies with a movie that was sponsored by a humor magazine trying to build their brand name by slapping their name on movies not unlike the other humor magazine had been doing but ended up removing their name from the movie, and boy is brain already fried and we're not even a minute into the episode. We're talking about Robert Downey's 1980 comedy Up the Academy. But, as always, before we get to Up the Academy, let's hit the backstory. If you know the name Robert Downey, it's likely because you know his son. Robert Downey, Jr. You know, Iron Man. Yes, Robert Downey, Jr. is a repo baby. Maybe you've seen the documentary he made about his dad, Sr., that was released by Netflix last year. But it's more than likely you've never heard of Robert Downey, Sr., who, ironically, was a junior himself like his son. Robert Downey was born Robert John Elias, Jr. in New York City in 1936, the son of a model and a manager of hotels and restaurants. His parents would divorce when he was young, and his mom would remarry while Robert was still in school. Robert Elias, Jr. would take the last name of his stepfather when he enlisted in the Army, in part because was wanted to get away from home but he was technically too young to actually join the Army. He would invent a whole new persona for himself, and he would, by his own estimate, spend the vast majority of his military career in the stockade, where he wrote his first novel, which still has never been published. After leaving the Army, Downey would spend some time playing semi-pro baseball, not quite good enough to go pro, spending his time away from the game writing plays he hoped to take, if not to Broadway, at least off-Broadway. But he would not make his mark in the arts until 1961, when Downey started to write and direct low-budget counterculture short films, starting with Ball's Bluff, about a Civil War soldier who wakes up in New York City's Central Park a century later. In 1969, he would write and direct a satirical film about the only black executive at a Madison Avenue advertising firm who is, through a strange circumstance, becomes the head of the firm when its chairman unexpectedly passes away. Featuring a cameo by Mel Brooks Putney Swope was the perfect anti-establishment film for the end of that decade, and the $120k film would gross more than $2.75m during its successful year and a half run in theatres. 1970's Pound, based on one of Downey's early plays, would be his first movie to be distributed by a major distributor, although it was independently produced outside the Hollywood system. Several dogs, played by humans, are at a pound, waiting to be euthanized. Oh, did I forget to mention it was a comedy? The film would be somewhat of a success at the time, but today, it's best known as being the acting debut of the director's five year old son, Robert Downey, Jr., although the young boy would be credited as Bob Downey. 1972's Greaser Palace was part of an early 1970s trend of trippy “acid Westerns,” like Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo and Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie. Character actor Allan Arbus plays Jesse, a man with amnesia who heals the sick, resurrects the dead and tap dances on water on the American frontier. It would be the first movie Downey would make with a million dollar budget. The critical consensus of the film at the time was not positive, although Jay Cocks, a critic for Time Magazine who would go on to be a regular screenwriter for Martin Scorsese in the 1980s, would proclaim the film to be “the most adventurous movie of the year.” The film was not a hit, and it would be decades before it would be discovered and appreciated by the next generation of cineastes. After another disappointing film, 1975's Moment to Moment, which would later be retitled Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight in order to not be confused with the 1978 movie of the same name starring John Travolta and Lily Tomlin that really, truly stunk, Downey would take some time off from filmmaking to deal with his divorce from his first wife and to spend more time with his son Robert and daughter Allyson. By 1978, Robert Downey was ready to get back to work. He would get a job quickly helping Chuck Barris write a movie version of Barris' cult television show, The Gong Show, but that wasn't going to pay the bills with two teenagers at home. What would, though, is the one thing he hadn't done yet in movies… Direct a Hollywood film. Enter Mad Magazine. In 1978, Mad Magazine was one of the biggest humor magazines in America. I had personally discovered Mad in late 1977, when my dad, stepmom and I were on a cross country trip, staying with friends outside Detroit, the day before my tenth birthday, when I saw an issue of Mad at a local grocery store, with something Star Wars-y on its cover. I begged my dad to give me the sixty cents to buy it, and I don't think I missed another issue for the next decade. Mad's biggest competition in the humor magazine game was National Lampoon, which appealed to a more adult funny bone than Mad. In 1978, National Lampoon saw a huge boost in sales when the John Landis-directed comedy Animal House, which had the name of the magazine in the title, became an unexpected smash hit at the box office. Warner Brothers, the media conglomerate who happened to own Mad Magazine, was eager to do something similar, and worked with Mad's publisher, Bill Gaines, to find the right script that could be molded into a Mad Magazine movie, even if, like Animal House, it wouldn't have any real connection to the magazine itself. They would find that script in The Brave Young Men of Weinberg, a comedy script by Tom Patchett and Jay Tarses, a pair of television comedy writers on shows like The Carol Burnett Show, The Sandy Duncan Show, The Bob Newhart Show and The Tony Randall Show, who had never sold a movie script before. The story would follow the misadventures of four teenage boys who, for different reasons, depend on each other for their very survival when they end up at the same military academy. Now, of all the research I've done for this episode, the one very important aspect of the production I was never able to find out was exactly how Robert Downey became involved in the film. Again, he had never made a Hollywood movie before. He had only made one movie with a budget of a million dollars. His movies were satirical and critical of society in general. This was not a match made in heaven. But somehow, someone at Warner Brothers thought he'd be the right director for the film, and somehow, Downey didn't disagree. Unlike Animal House, Downey and Warners didn't try to land a known commodity like John Belushi to play one of the four leads. In fact, all four of the leads, Wendell Brown, Tommy Citera, Joseph Hutchinson, and Ralph Macchio, would all be making their feature debuts. But there would be some familiar faces in the film. Ron Liebman, who was a familiar face from such films has Slaughterhouse-Five, Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood and Norma Rae, would play the head of the Academy. Tom Poston, who played Mindy's downstairs neighbor on Mork and Mindy, plays what would now be considered to be a rather offensive gay caricature as the guy who handles the uniforms of the cadets, Antonio Fargas, best known as Huggy Bear on Starsky and Hutch but who had previously worked with Downey on Putney Swope and Pound, as the Coach, and Barbara Bach, who had starred as Anya Amasova in the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. The $5m film would begin production in Salina, Kansas, on September 17th, 1979, still using the title The Brave Young Men of Weinberg. The primary shooting location would be the St. John's Military School, which was still functioning while the film was in production, and would use most of the 144 students as extras during the shoot. The film would shoot for nine weeks without much incident, and the cast and crew would be home in time to enjoy Thanksgiving with their friends and family. Unlike Animal House, the makers of The Brave Young Men of Weinberg did attempt to tie the movie into the magazine that would be presenting the film. At the very end of the movie, the magazine's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, shows up on the side of the road, to wave goodbye to people and deliver his signature line, “What, Me Worry?” in a thought bubble that leads into the end credits. The person wearing the not quite realistic looking Neuman head gear, fourteen year old Scott Shapiro, was the son of the executive vice president of worldwide production at Warner Brothers. After the first of the year, as Downey worked on his edit of the film, the studio decided to change the title from The Brave Young Men of Weinberg to Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy. Bill Gaines, the publisher of Mad Magazine, suggested a slightly different title, Mad Magazine Completely Disassociates Itself from Up the Academy, but the studio decided that was too long for theater marquees. But we'll come back to that in a moment. Warner Brothers set a June 6, 1980 release for the film, and Downey would finish his cut of the film by the end of March. A screening on the Warners lot in early April did not go well. Ron Liebman hated the film so much, he demanded that Warners completely remove his name from everything associated with the film. His name would not appear on the poster, the newspaper ads, the television commercials, the lobby cards, the press kit, or even in the movie itself. Bill Gaines would hate it to, such much in fact that he really did try to disassociate the magazine from the film. In a 1983 interview with The Comics Journal, Gaines would explain without much detail that there were a number of things he had objected to in the script that he was told would not be shot and not end up in the final film that were shot and did end up in the final film. But he wouldn't be able to get the magazine's name off the movie before it opened in theatres. Now, one of the problems with trying to research how well films did in 1980 is that you really have only two sources for grosses, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, and they didn't always report national grosses every week, depending on outside factors. It just hadn't the national sport it's been since, say, 1983. So when Up the Academy opened in theatres on June 6th, we don't have a full idea of how many theatres it played in nationwide, or how much it grossed. The closest thing we do have for this Variety's listing of the top movies of the week based on a limited selection of showcase theatres in the top 20 markets. So we know that the film played at 7 showcase screens in New York City that weekend, grossing $175k, and in Los Angeles on 15 showcase screens, grossing $149k. But we also know, thanks to newspaper ads in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times that the film was playing in 11 theatres in the New York Metro area, and in 30 theatres in the Los Angeles Metro area, so those listed grosses are merely a snapshot and not the whole picture. According to Variety's limited tracking of major market showcase theatres for the week, Up the Academy was the second highest grossing film of the week, bringing in $729k from 82 theatres. And according to their chart's side notes, this usually accounts for about 25% of a movie's national gross, if a film is playing in wide release around the entire country. In its second week, Up the Academy would place ninth on that showcase theatre listing, with $377k from 87 theatres. But by the time Variety did bring back proper national grosses in the film's third week of release, there would be no mention of Up the Academy in those listings, as Warners by this time had bigger fish to handle, namely Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Shining, and Bronco Billy, their Clint Eastwood movie for the year. In that showcase theatre listing, though, Up the Academy had fallen to 16th place, with $103k from 34 theatres. In fact, there is no publicly available record of how many theatres Up the Academy played in during its theatrical run, and it wouldn't be until the 1981 Warner Brothers 10-K annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Up the Academy had earned $10m from American movie theatres. If studios get about 55% of the box office grosses in rental fees, that would put the $5m film in a very good position to be profitable, depending on how much was spent on P&A, prints and advertising. The film wasn't an Animal House-level hit, but it wasn't exactly the bomb many have painted it to be. After Up the Academy, two of the actors, Wendell Brown and Joseph Hutchinson, would never act in another movie, although, billed as Hutch Parker, the latter would produce six X-Men related movies between 2013 and 2019, including Logan. Tommy Citera would make two more movies until he left acting in 1988. And Ralph Macchio would, of course, go on to play Daniel LaRusso, the Karate Kid, in a career-defining role that he's still playing nearly forty years later. Robert Downey would make another wacky comedy, called Moonbeam, in 1982. Co-written with Richard Belzer, Moonbeam would feature a fairly interesting cast including Zack Norman, Tammy Grimes, Michael J. Pollard, Liz Torres and Mr. Belzer, and tells the story of a New York cable television station that becomes world famous when they accidentally bounce their signal off the moon. But the film would not get released until October 1986, in one theatre in New York City for one week. It couldn't even benefit from being able to promote Robert Downey, Jr., who in the ensuing years had started to build an acting career by being featured in John Sayles' Baby It's You, Fritz Kiersch's Tuff Turf, John Hughes' Weird Science, and the Rodney Dangerfield movie Back to School, as well as being a member of the cast of Saturday Night Live for a year. There's be sporadic work in television, working on shows like Matlock and The Twilight Zone, but what few movies he could get made would be pale shadows of her earlier, edgier work. Even with his son regularly taking supporting roles in his dad's movies to help the old man out, movies like Rented Lips and Too Much Sun would be critically panned and ignored by audiences. His final movie as a writer and director, Hugo Pool, would gross just $13k when it was released in December 1997, despite having a cast that included Patrick Dempsey, Richard Lewis, Malcolm McDowell, Alyssa Milano, Cathy Moriarty and Sean Penn, along with Junior. Downey would also continue to act in other director's movies, including two written and directed by one of his biggest fans, Paul Thomas Anderson. Downey would play Burt, the studio manager, in Boogie Nights, and the WDKK Show director in Magnolia. Anderson adored Downey so much, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker would sit down with Downey for a four-part conversation filmed for the Criterion Company in 2013. Robert Downey would pass away in July 2021, a curious footnote in the history of cinema, mostly because of the superstar he sired. Most of his movies are hard to find on video, and nearly impossible to find on streaming services, outside of a wonderful two disc DVD set issued by Criterion's Eclipse specialty label and several titles streaming on The Criterion Channel. Outside of Up the Academy, which is available to rent or purchase from Amazon, Apple TV and several other streaming services, you can find Putney Swope, Greaser's Palace and Too Much Sun on several of the more popular streaming services, but the majority of them are completely missing in action. You can also learn more about Robert Downey in Sr., a documentary streaming on Netflix produced by Robert Downey, Jr. where the son recounts the life and career of his recently passed father, alongside Paul Thomas Anderson, Alan Arkin, and mega-producer Norman Lear. Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 107, on John Landis's underrated 1985 comedy Into the Night, is released. Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode. The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment. Thank you again. Good night.
Running on HBO for seven seasons and 93 episodes from 1989 to 1996, Tales From The Crypt was a wonderfully ghoulish show that was based on Bill Gaines' EC Comics imprint of the same name. Executive produced by Joel Silver, Richard Donner, Robert Zemeckis, Walter Hill and David Giler, the show was a huge success due to its dark tales and even darker humour. From the second season onwards, Tales From The Crypt was produced by Gil Adler and A L Katz, a duo who oversaw the show's production and its rise glory - or as the Crypt Keeper would say, ‘rise to gory'. As the show was winding down on television, it made the leap to the big screen with Tales From The Crypt Presents: Demon Knight in 1995 and Tales from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood in 1996. The later film's troubled production is what made A L Katz create the How Not To Make A Movie Podcast - essential listening for those who like Tales From The Crypt or have an interest in juicy stories on the making of movies and television. A L Katz joined the Movies In Focus podcast to talk about the making of Tales From The Crypt, how the How Not To Make A Movie Podcast came about as well as the new series that he hopes to make with Gil Adler.
In this episode, we get the chance to talk again with Bill Gaines. Principal of Gaines & Associates Government Relations, the leader in wildlife-related policy in the California State Legislature. Bill is a wealth of knowledge and is on the front lines dealing with policies in front of the California Fish and Game Commission, and all other political arenas where wildlife-related policy decisions are made in California.
Tales from the Crypt was an American bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics from 1950 to 1955, producing 27 issues (the first issue with the title was #20, previously having been International Comics (#1–#5); International Crime Patrol (#6); Crime Patrol (#7–#16) and The Crypt of Terror (#17–#19) for a total of 46 issues in the series). Along with its sister titles, The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt was popular, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s comic books came under attack from parents, clergymen, schoolteachers and others who believed the books contributed to illiteracy and juvenile delinquency. In April and June 1954, highly publicized congressional subcommittee hearings on the effects of comic books upon children left the industry shaken. With the subsequent imposition of a highly restrictive Comics Code, EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines cancelled Tales from the Crypt and its two companion horror titles, along with the company's remaining crime and science fiction series in September 1954. Since their demise, all EC Comics titles have been reprinted at various times. Stories from the horror series have been adapted into other media, including a 1972 film and a television series that aired on HBO from 1989 to 1996. The later spawned two films—Demon Knight (1995) and Bordello of Blood (1996)—as well as a children's animated series, a game show, and a radio series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Join Ryan and special guest Bill Gaines as they discuss some important do's and don'ts of tax planning as tax season is sneaking up on us quickly!
It's Spooky Season, y'all! This month the Always YA panel classifies themselves as Spooky, Scary, or Slasher. We all share some YA book picks to read during October, and Susan shares some interesting info about the history horror comics. Listen if you dare! Instagram: @alwaysyapod Email: alwaysyapod@gmail.com Media mentioned in this episode: The Sandman streaming on Netflix, based on the graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. Prey (2022) streaming on Hulu. Kingdom streaming on Netflix. All of Us Are Dead streaming on Netflix. Cobra Kai streaming on Netflix. Hocus Pocus 2 streaming on Disney+. Into the Sublime by Kate A. Boorman Grady Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism streaming on Amazon Prime on September 30th. Sonia Saraiya. The Karate Kid, Cobra Kai, and the Odd Legacy of Mr. Miyagi. Vanity Fair, July 3, 2019. Dade Hayes. ‘Cobra Kai' KOs ‘Bridgerton' On Nielsen Streaming List; ‘Soul' Enters Limbo State. Deadline, February 8, 2021. Problematic Fave podcast on Spotify. Darren Mooney. The Karate Kid Movies Explore Hollywood's Complicated Martial Arts History. The Escapist, January 1, 2021. Haiyang Yang and Kuangjie Zhang, The Psychology Behind Why We Love (or Hate) Horror. Harvard Business Review, October 26, 2021. Merphy Napier's Youtube video How Reading Fiction Affects Your Brain explains the benefit of reading Stephen King's Pet Sematary in helping her process grief. Mike Duran, ordained minister and author of Christian Horror: On the Compatibility of a Biblical Worldview and the Horror Genre, blog post “Is Beowulf the First “Religious Horror” Story Ever Written?” published July 28, 2015. “The Top 10 Most Watched Shows During Quarantine.” Daily Infographic, September 5, 2021. My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones. Beowulf, translated by Maria Dahvana Headley. Something Is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV, Deluxe hardcover edition book one (collects comic #1-15). The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu. Fredric Wertham. What Parents Don't Know About Comic Books. Ladies Home Journal, November 1953. Joe Sergi. 1948: The Year Comics Met Their Match. Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. June 8, 2012. “How America Almost Destroyed The Comic Book Industry”. CNBC, YouTube, July 17, 2021. Provides a brief overview of the censorship of horror comics. The documentary Comic Book Confidential includes footage from the testimony of Bill Gaines, founder of EC Comics and later Mad Magazine, at the 1954 Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. You can watch some clips from the hearings on YouTube. Kelly McEvers, These 'Paperbacks From Hell' Reflect The Real-Life Angst Of The 1970s. NPR, October 26, 2017. Home to Stay!: The Complete Ray Bradbury EC Stories by Ray Bradbury, Fantagraphics Books, 2022.
Les comics d'aujourd'hui sont-ils gangrénés par la représentation de la diversité et par un omniprésent message de tolérance ? Retour dans les années 1950, une époque bénie où on nous emmerdait pas avec toutes ces conneries ! A long time ago… Régulièrement, on peut voir une partie du lectorat fan de comic books se plaindre du contenu politisé de certaines publications. Aujourd'hui, d'après eux, les comics déborderaient de messages plus ou moins cachés prônant la diversité et défendant les positions de ce que certains et certaines appellent “le wokisme”. Si l'un des derniers exemples en date est la révélation de la bisexualité de Jon Kent, le fils et successeur de Superman, la liste est longue comme le bras. Que ce soit sur le papier avec Miss Marvel, de confession musulmane, ou au cinéma avec le comédien afro-américain Jeffrey Wright dans le rôle du commissaire Gordon du “The Batman” de Matt Reeves, la moindre évolution d'un personnage fait monter au créneau toute une frange de l'opinion. Mettons les choses au clair tout de suite : les histoires de super-héros ont toujours été politisées et chargées d'un message social. Dire le contraire, c'est mentir. Dès le premier numéro de Action Comics en 1938, Jerry Siegel et Joe Shuster mettent en scène Superman en train de corriger un mari violent et un politicien véreux. En 1946, dans son show radiophonique, Il affronte même des suprématistes blancs dans “Clan of the Fiery Cross”, adapté en comic book chez DC Comics sous le titre “Superman Smashes the Klan”. Dans les années 1970, d'autres personnages vont cristalliser les travers de l'Amérique dans leurs aventures. Le duo formé par Green Lantern et Green Arrow, sous la plume de Dennis O'Neil et le crayon de Neal Adams, va traverser les États-Unis et mettre en exergue les fléaux qui gangrènent le pays : racisme, drogue, sexisme, et dérives sectaires… En 1972, Luke Cage, alias Power Man, co-créé par Archie Goodwin, Georges Tuska et Billy Graham, montre le visage des ghettos où les afro-américains sont abandonnés par un système imprégné par le ségrégationnisme et la discrimination raciale. Toujours chez Marvel, à partir de 1975, les X-Men de Chris Claremont se posent en défenseurs du pacifisme, de l'humanisme et de la tolérance alors qu'ils sont eux-mêmes rejetés par la société qu'ils s'efforcent de protéger. Et que dire d'un personnage comme Captain America, qui dès sa première aventure, en 1941, va carrément mettre une droite à Adolf Hitler en personne ? Si comme une bonne partie de la première vague de super-héros du Golden Age apparue durant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, il va jouer le jeu de la propagande américaine en encourageant l'effort de guerre, à partir des années 1970, Steve Rogers incarnera une autre vision des États-Unis, allant jusqu'à s'opposer physiquement à un président piétinant les valeurs pour lesquelles il se bat. Tout aussi politique et symbolique, mais beaucoup moins docile. Ce ne sont là que les exemples les plus connus et les plus flagrants du sous-texte social et politique présent dès les premiers pas de nos super-héros préférés. Les comics ont toujours été le reflet de la société dans laquelle ils étaient produits. Et si cette affirmation est sûrement plus vraie que jamais, penser que les publications du XXème siècle étaient totalement neutres en terme d'idéologie, et bien c'est faux. Et de la même façon, si vous avez tout à fait le droit d'être en désaccord avec les messages véhiculés par les comic books d'aujourd'hui, vous ne pouvez pas leur reprocher de contenir ces messages, car cela fait partie de la nature même de la bande dessinée américaine depuis qu'elle existe. Space Oddity Fondé en 1944 par le pionnier du comic book Max Gaines, Educational Comics, qui deviendra plus tard Entertaining Comics, se spécialise tout d'abord dans des adaptations en bande dessinée de la Bible et de l'histoire des États-Unis. Quand Max décède accidentellement en 1947, c'est son fils William qui reprend la société et donne une nouvelle direction à EC Comics. La particularité de William Gaines, c'est qu'il n'y connait rien aux comic books. Se destinant à devenir enseignant, c'est plus par respect de l'héritage familial que par passion qu'il va reprendre la maison d'édition, se contentant dans un premier temps de maintenir la ligne éditoriale établie par son père. Mais EC Comics est lourdement endetté et c'est grâce à l'intervention du dessinateur Al Feldstein, qui encourage Gaines à revoir son catalogue et à surfer sur les tendances en publiant des récits policiers, des westerns ou des histoires de romances, que l'éditeur va atteindre un certain équilibre financier. Gaines et Feldstein , tous deux amateurs d'horreur et de fantastique, vont tenter de publier quelques histoires dans ces styles qui ont le vent en poupe chez les jeunes, et rapidement constater que c'est un succès. À partir de 1950, les périodiques de EC Comics se transforment peu à peu en poussant les curseurs toujours plus loin. Les histoires policières mettent en scène des meurtres sordides toujours plus gores, et les comic books de guerre ou de romance sont renommés pour devenir des magazines d'horreur ou de science-fiction remplis de monstres et présentant plusieurs courtes histoires caractérisés par leur chute toujours plus choquante ! The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt et The Haunt of Fear forment le trio de tête du catalogue EC Comics qui va inspirer pratiquement tous les autres éditeurs de l'époque, entraînant le marché dans une surenchère sanguinolente qui aura bientôt d'importantes répercussions sur l'histoire des comics, mais je vais y revenir. William Gaines, qui a grandi en lisant des pulp's, va également plébisciter la publication de récits de science-fiction dans ses magazines, un genre qui trouve un souffle nouveau à cette période, inspiré par les peurs d'invasions et de conflits nucléaires nées de la Guerre Froide. Et justement, maintenant que le contexte est posé, revenons-en au sujet principal de cet article : Judgment Day, une histoire de science-fiction publiée par EC Comics en 1953. Such a lovely color for you Paru pour la première fois dans le dix-huitième numéro de Weird Fantasy, Judgment Day, écrit par Al Feldstein et dessiné par Joe Orlando, est un récit typique de l'époque. Courte histoire de 7 pages, elle met en scène Tarlon, un astronaute terrien envoyé par la république galactique sur la planète Cybrinia afin de déterminer si celle-ci mérite ou non d'être intégrée au consortium qu'il représente. Cybrinia a la particularité d'être habitée par des robots laissés ici en autonomie par les humains pour y développer leur propre société. Et alors qu'il visite l'usine dans laquelle les êtres artificiels sont fabriqués par leurs semblables, Tarlon s'étonne de n'avoir croisé jusque là que des robots de couleur orange. L'émissaire terrien apprend alors de son guide que les robots bleus, eux, vivent dans un quartier à part, nommé “Blue Town”, et que dans le bus pour s'y rendre, les robots orange et les bleus ne doivent pas se mélanger, chacun ayant une place prédéfinie, à l'avant ou à l'arrière. Une fois à Blue Town, Tarlon demande à visiter l'usine dans laquelle les robots bleus sont fabriqués et il découvre, assez étonné, que le procédé est tout à fait identique à celui des robots orange, excepté la phase d'éducation, durant laquelle les robots bleus sont conditionnés pour être serviles et rester cantonnés aux tâches les plus ingrates, alors qu'il n'existe aucune justification à cela. Lorsqu'il questionne son guide orange quant à cette situation, ce dernier explique qu'il en a toujours été ainsi et qu'en tant que simple individu, il ne peut rien faire pour changer l'ordre établi sur Cybrinia. Tarlon quitte alors la planète en informant son hôte que son monde n'est pas prêt pour rejoindre la république galactique, mais que si son peuple se remet en question, tout espoir n'est pas perdu car il fut un temps où les habitants de la Terre avaient, eux-aussi, des difficultés à vivre ensemble. Une fois en route vers la Terre à bord de sa navette, Tarlon retire son casque et c'est le visage d'un homme noir qui est révélé au lecteur. Si, aujourd'hui, cette parabole pourrait sembler un peu moralisatrice et dépourvue de finesse, elle expose pourtant en seulement quelques pages tous les problèmes et les non-sens nés du racisme et de la ségrégation, et ça à tous les niveaux d'un système. Et c'est aussi effrayant que décourageant de constater que pratiquement soixante-dix ans plus tard, la situation n'a pas vraiment changé. En fait, lors de sa publication en 1953, Judgment Day sera très bien accueillie par les lecteurs et bon nombre d'entre eux témoigneront même que cette courte histoire les a poussé à se remettre en question. Mais quand EC Comics décide de réimprimer le court récit dans le trente-troisième numéro de Incredible Science Fiction en 1956, c'est une autre histoire… Sauvons la jeunesse ! Car entre temps, le monde de la bande dessinée américaine a changé. Au début des années 1950, l'Amérique cherche un nouveau bouc émissaire à qui attribuer la hausse des chiffres de la délinquance. Sous l'impulsion de livres comme Seduction of the Innocent de Fredric Wertham, de la commission menée par le sénateur Estes Kefauver, et du magistrat Charles F. Murphy, les comic books se retrouvent au centre de l'attention comme grands responsables de la déchéance de la jeunesse qui sombre peu à peu dans la criminalité. Bien avant que l'on accuse le Heavy Metal, les Jeux de Rôles ou le Jeu Vidéo de transformer les adolescents en créatures immorales et sanguinaires, les comics ont fait l'objet d'une campagne de désinformation menée par des politiques, des intellectuels et des religieux adeptes de raccourcis faciles et préférant s'en prendre à l'art plutôt que de regarder en face l'échec d'un système qu'ils entretiennent pour préserver leur petit confort. Ainsi, alors que l'on assiste dans plusieurs états à des autodafés durant lesquels d'honnêtes citoyens détruisent les comics qui pervertissent leurs enfants, il est décidé en 1954 de mettre en place la Comics Code Authority, un organisme d'autorégulation visant limiter les dérives des publications destinées à la jeunesse. Le Code impose dès lors de nombreuses règles aux bandes dessinées publiées par les éditeurs américains, parmi lesquelles l'interdiction de représenter le crime ou tout autre activité illégale sous un jour favorable, de ne jamais encourager le lecteur à remettre en question l'autorité en place, ou bien encore l'obligation de toujours faire triompher le bien face au mal. Ces grands principes s'accompagnent d'une large censure des thèmes abordés et des images pouvant être montrées : le Code interdit le sexe, la nudité, les scènes gores, la violence excessive, la torture, le cannibalisme, les morts-vivants, les vampires, les loups-garous, ainsi que tout ce qui est jugé “contre-nature” ou “anormal” à l'époque, comme l'homosexualité ou toute forme de fétichisme. De plus, plus aucun magazine ne pourra utiliser les mots “Horror” ou “Terror” dans son titre. Le respect de ces règles assure aux publications de pouvoir porter sur leur couverture le sceau “Approved by the Comics Code Authority“, et ainsi d'avoir la possibilité d'être distribuées en toute légalité, là où une bande dessinée dépourvue du célèbre logo risquait tout bonnement d'être refusée par les kiosques et ainsi de représenter une perte considérable pour l'éditeur qui ne pouvait alors plus écouler ses stocks. Si dans un premier temps, on peut penser que certaines des règles du Comics Code sont plutôt bénéfiques et limitent les dérives, on comprend assez rapidement que beaucoup d'entre elles sont largement soumises à interprétation lors du passage des publications devant la commission. Et c'était d'autant plus vrai dans le cas de EC Comics, qui, entre ses histoires horrifiques en grande partie à l'origine de la polémique et le caractère bien trempé de Bill Gaines, avait tout pour être dans le viseur du juge Murphy. Aussi, lorsque la réimpression de Judgment Day fut présentée avant sa publication, Charles F. Murphy déclara à Feldstein que le héros ne pouvait en aucun cas être noir, et ça sans aucune justification. S'ensuivit une prise de bec musclée entre le juge, l'auteur et l'éditeur, à l'issue de laquelle EC Comics refusa catégoriquement de changer quoi que ce soit à l'histoire. Pour vous dire à quel point Murphy tenait à avoir gain de cause, incontestablement pour emmerder Gaines, il n'y a pas d'autre mot, et bien face à la détermination de ce dernier, il aurait demandé à ce que les gouttes de sueur présentes sur le visage du personnage principal soient retirées. Une exigence absolument surréaliste qui, une fois encore, ne peut absolument pas être justifiée par l'une des règles du Comics Code. L'histoire sera finalement republiée telle quelle, sans prendre en considération les objections de la CCA. Un acte fort qui signera également la fin d'une époque pour EC Comics. Weird ScienceLa vérité, c'est qu'il existe un sous-texte peu glorieux et typique du puritanisme américain au Comics Code. Si celui-ci demande à ce que les femmes soient représentées de manière réaliste et le moins sexualisées possible, c'est pour mieux en faire des demoiselles en détresse ou de sages ménagères attendant un providentiel héros masculin, de préférence blanc et bien viril. Car si le Comics Code interdit aussi toute forme de discrimination, la commission s'assure tout de même que chacun reste bien à sa place, dans un pays où la ségrégation est toujours en vigueur en 1956 et où il faut veiller à ne pas attiser les revendications sociales des afro-américains. En fait, la principale règle outrepassée implicitement par Judgment Day était certainement celle de ne pas contredire le pouvoir en place. Prôner l'égalité et la tolérance entre des robots, pourquoi pas, mais en mettant en scène un personnage principal qui aurait lui-même était la cible de discriminations à l'époque, EC Comics va trop loin pour la Comics Code Authority. Bien avant que Stan Lee ne défie le Code en publiant une histoire traitant du problème de la drogue chez les jeunes dans les pages de Spider-Man, ou que le Swamp Thing d'Alan Moore ne s'affranchisse définitivement de l'estampille de la CCA, William Gaines et Al Feldstein ont été des précurseurs et EC Comics en a payé le prix. En ne se pliant pas aux règles imposées, l'éditeur s'est mis dans une situation très délicate qui l'obligera à abandonner la publication de comic books pour se concentrer sur des périodiques au format magazine échappant à la censure du Comics Code, dont le plus célèbre reste sans conteste MAD. Un triste sort qui rappelle pourtant le rôle majeur de la fiction, en l'occurrence de la science-fiction, et l'importance d'un art populaire accessible au plus grand nombre dans l'évolution des mentalités. De Victor Hugo à Star Trek, en passant par la Doom Patrol ou même The Witcher, chaque œuvre porte un message qui reflète les préoccupations de son temps. Qu'il s'agisse de conflits sociaux, de l'acceptation de la différence, ou de la nécessité d'une prise de conscience collective, ces thématiques parfois bien cachées pèsent pourtant bien plus qu'on ne pourrait le croire dans l'amélioration de notre quotidien quand les œuvres en question touchent des millions de personnes. Pour l'anecdote, et pour comprendre à quel point la science-fiction a encore du travail, il faudra attendre 1983 pour que Guion Bluford devienne le premier astronaute afro-américain à aller dans l'espace. Soit 14 ans après qu'on ait marché sur la Lune. Si vous voulez en savoir plus sur EC Comics et sur cette histoire, je vous recommande de jeter un oeil au livre EC Comics : Race, Shock & Social Protest de Qiana Whitted, qui m'a été très utile pour l'écriture de cet article. N'hésitez pas à partager cet article sur les réseaux sociaux s'il vous a plu ! Recevez mes articles, podcasts et vidéos directement dans votre boîte mail sans intermédiaire ni publicité en vous abonnant gratuitement ! Get full access to CHRIS - POP CULTURE & COMICS at chrisstup.substack.com/subscribe
Joe Raiola is a comedy writer and satirist, producer of an Annual John Lennon Tribute, and standup comic. He is probably most known for his work in Mad Magazine's editorial department, where he spent 33 years with the magazine, eventually becoming senior editor. Joe joined Tony Mazur and the Check Your Brain podcast to reminisce over his Mad tenure, his relationship with founder Bill Gaines, the Mad trips, and the transition periods after Gaines's death in 1992 and the eventual move from New York City to California. For more information on Joe, from appearances to contacting, visit JoeRaiola.com. Follow Tony on his various social media platforms: Twitter - @TonyMazur Instagram - @tmaze25 Be sure to subscribe to Tony's Patreon. $5 a month gets you bonus content, extra podcasts, and early access to guests. Visit Patreon.com/TonyMazur. Cover art for the Check Your Brain podcast is by Eric C. Fischer. If you need terrific graphic design work done, contact Eric at illstr8r@gmail.com.
Perk your ears up to this one ca, I think my favorite part of this episode is the information he divulged off a hot mic about the BULLSHIT 501 orgs in California that claim to do a lot but in reality don't do a fucking thing… Go fuck yourself California.
Sergio Aragonés might well be the world's most distinguished, prolific and beloved cartoonist. Even as Mad Magazine, where his distinctive and hilarious drawings graced their pages for 60 incredible years, ceased publication during the pandemic, Sergio has been busier than ever. He's cranking out multiple editions of his picaresque masterpiece, "Groo the Wanderer," creating multiple covers for other magazines, working on bespoke projects and entertaining his adoring fans with his instantly recognizable, hilarious and insightful cartoons. Sergio talks about his family's flight from Franco-era fascism in Spain to France, then to Mexico City, where his father found work as a producer for Mexico's vibrant film industry. Sergio entertained himself on film sets with his sketchpad and pens, and by an early age was entertaining his friends with his talents. He also played extras in many films before heading off to architecture school before trying his hand at a professional career in cartooning. After arriving in New York City by bus, his first employment was declaiming Federico Garcia Lorca poems. It wasn't long before his obvious genius was recognized by Mad Magazine and he was off and running. He talked about Mad's famous annual trips, one in which publisher Bill Gaines took his entire crew to Surinam to convince their one reader in that country to renew his subscription (though Sergio missed that trip because he was getting married), the easy and enduring camaraderie of that talented crew, the technological changes that have disrupted his business, the opportunities it presents, and how he kept himself sane during the pandemic. He also talked about how history is taught in Mexico versus how it's taught in the U.S., and many other things. We did not talk about pirates, Krishnamurti or the perils of horse ownership.
Welcome to the latest episode of Magazines and Monsters! In this episode, I'll be talking with Mike (his twitter - ComicsintheGoldenAge), from the Comics in the Golden Age Podcast! Mike and I will be discussing three incredibly awesome stories from EC comics title Shock Suspenstories (two from issue 6 and one from issue 5). These tales of horror were groundbreaking to say the least, especially when you consider they were published in 1952! Get ready for the gore, as Al Feldstein, Bill Gaines, Wally Wood, "Ghastly" Graham Ingels, and Jack Davis bring terror to the show! This is episode is so awesome it was two years in the making (sort of)! Tune in and enjoy! As always, you can send feedback to the show through email at MagazinesandMonsters@gmail.com or to me on Twitter @Billyd_licious or on Facebook at Magazines and Monsters! I also added a clip (5 minutes) of some info on EC featuring Al Feldstein, Mark Evanier, Bernie Wrightson, George Romero, and Russ Cochran!
Alex Grand and Jim Thompson interview comic writer Don McGregor, in the first of a multi-parter on his road to Black Panther, discussing his childhood, jobs out of high school, his first experience with social justice at a Hopalong Cassidy fan meeting, Phil Seuling Comic Convention, introducing himself to Jim Steranko in 1969, heckling Jim Warren into a job, meeting collaborator Billy Graham, and writing the first interracial kiss in newsstand comics. Don also discusses the comics and book writers and artists that influenced his writing as a kid in this kick off episode including Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, Jim Steranko, and Reed Crandall. Images used in artwork ©Their Respective Copyright holders, CBH Podcast ©Comic Book Historians. Thumbnail Artwork ©Comic Book Historians.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/comicbookhistorians)
Bill Gaines of Gaines & Associates has 30 years of experience as an advocate and lobbyist for hunting. Bill has a ton of knowledge on the bear ban bill out of California as well as a several other anti-hunting legislative goals. Bill is well-versed in hunting advocacy and always willing to stand up for hunters. We talk about the recent bear hunting ban, and why it's too early to take a victory lap. We discuss what hunters can do to help stop the spread of anti-hunting legislation in any state. Also we talk about what hunters do that fuel anti-hunters, and how to better communicate the hunting message. All hunters should listen to this episode to better understand what we're up against. Check out Bill's website here. Give not an inch to the anti-hunting community! Check out the sponsor discounts! SKRE Gear, high performance hunting attire you can actually afford: Promo code "Thewesternhuntsman" for 15% off and free shipping Phelps Game Calls, world-class hunting calls made in the USA: promo code "Huntsman10" for 10% off Hoffman Boots, unbeatable, rugged, trusted hunting boots: promo code "HUNTSMAN10" for 10% off Follow The Western Huntsman on Instagram Email your trivia answers to jim@thewesternhuntsman.com - put "trivia" in the subject line Stay western, and I'll see ya on the mountain! Jim Huntsman Link Tree
Tune in for a I depth look with Bill Gaines at how we as a community was able to get SB525 pulled down.
We sit down with Travis to announce the winners of the 2020 is trash challenge, San Diego hunting TV (his new youtube channel), proposed bear hunting ban S.B 252 and a range of other topics. Be sure to stay tuned for our upcoming podcast with outdoor/hunting lobbyist Bill Gaines! IG: @ridge2ridgeoutdoors
Brandon and John along with Steve Turigliatto talk with Bill Gaines.Bill is a long time lobbyist for hunting and fishing causes. A quick google search will show his credibility in lobbing and giving us a voice. Bill has won multiple awards for his efforts. Some of his awards areAbove & Beyond AwardCalifornia Chapter of the Wild Sheep FoundationApr 2019Conservationist of the YearConservation ForceFeb 2019Conservation work in the California State Legislature during the 2018 Legislative Session2013 Californian of The YearOutdoor Writers Association of CaliforniaApr 2014Mr. Gaines was awarded "2013 Californian of The Year" for his continual dedication and outstanding performance in helping preserve California's wildlife resource and our hunting heritage.
Welcome to Professor Frenzy's Bedtime Stories. Today's story is Horror House from The Vault of Horror #15, the October/November issue from 1950. It was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein and the art was by Johnny Craig.
Welcome to Professor Frenzy's Bedtime Stories. Today's story is Man From the Grave from The Haunt of Fear #4, the November/December issue from 1950. It was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein and the art was by Wally Wood.
Welcome to Professor Frenzy's Bedtime Stories. Today's story is The Living Mummy from The Haunt of Fear #4, the November/December issue from 1950. It was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein and the art was by Jack Davis.
Welcome to Professor Frenzy's Bedtime Stories created especially for Monster Kid Radio. In this segment I am going to tell you a story from EC Horror Comics. Today's story is The Tunnel of Terror. It is from The Haunt of Fear #4, the November/December issue from 1950. It was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein and the art was by Jack Kamen.
Welcome to Professor Frenzy's Bedtime Stories. Today's story is The Hunchback. It is from The Haunt of Fear #4, the November/December issue from 1950. It was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein and the art was by Ghastly Graham Ingles.
Welcome to Professor Frenzy's Bedtime Stories In this segment I am going to tell you a story from EC Horror Comics. Today's story is The Curse of Harkley Heath. It is from The Vault of Horror #13, the June/July issue from 1950. It was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein and the art was by Wally Wood and Harry Harrison.
Hang on to your hats for this one. Today Bill and I kick back and fourth some ideas for conservation, we discuss the current state of the California Fish and wildlife Commission, we also dive into hunt deer with hounds and the up coming battles for that, mtn Lions, Bob cats, bears and wolves all … Continue reading Ep 134: California Lobbyist Bill Gaines →
Welcome to Professor Frenzy's Bedtime Stories. Today's story is The Dead Will Return. It is from The Vault of Horror #13, the June/July issue from 1950. It was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein and the art was by Al Feldstein.
Welcome to Professor Frenzy's Bedtime Stories. Today's story is The Mummy's Return. It is from The Haunt of Fear #16, the July/August issue from 1950. It was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein and the art was by Jack Kamen.
Today's story is The Killer in the Coffin. It is from The Haunt of Fear #16, the July/August issue from 1950. It was written by Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein and the art was by Ghastly Graham Ingles.
Bill Gaines changed the comic industry in multiple ways, in multiple eras, it just so happens that our favorite involved schlocky gore and stolen stories. The "source material" included works from Ralph Murphy, Robert Florey, F. Marion Crawford, Arthur Machens, W.F. Harvey, H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradburry, David H. Keller, and Carl Theodor Dreyer. In the episode, we try to herald the artists of the comic, including Wally Wood, Johnny Craig, Graham Ingels, George Evans, Jack Kamen, and Joe Orlando. Truly, the art is what distinguished this series more than anything else. We also touch on the cartoon series, Tales from the Cryptkeeper, the feature films (Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Fear), and the bizarre game show, Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House. This week's "Hidden Track" is Makes My Blood Dance with their song Sick as Our Secrets. www.makesmyblooddance.com If you ever have feedback or recommendations on future episodes, please let us know at slasherspod@gmail.com. You can always find us on our social media: Instagram, Twitter, Slasher App: @slasherspod Facebook: /slasherspod Reddit: u/slasherspod https://www.youtube.com/c/slasherspodcast comics, comic books, art, horror, movie reviews, interview, behind the scenes, documentary --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/slasherspod/support
On this episode of Tales from the Podcast I have on Mr. Michael Ravenshadow from the Trick or Treat Radio podcast! Join as as we talk about food as well as discuss this fun episode of Tales from the Crypt.Other topics discussed include: Trick-or-Treat Radio, long intros, EC Comics, DC, Batman, HBO, First and Ten, Survival of the Film Freaks, VHS, Bad Dudes, Billy Zane, pets, exercise a cat, Bill Gaines, comic code, conspiracy theory.You can follow me at:https://instagram.com/tales_from_the_podcasthttps://twitter.com/TalesFromThePodhttps://facebook.com/groups/talesfromthepodcastAnd can contact me through my website:http://talesfromthepodcast.com
Heroes #292 (Wednesday Feb 13th, 2019) with Coy Jandreau, Amy Dallen and Mike Kalinowski plus Interview w/ Jay Baruchel 1. Marvel and Hulu to Team-Up for 4 Adult Animated shows. 2. Avengers Endgame considering having an intermission due to 3 hour runtime. 3. The Trench! Aquaman spinoff in the works (without Aquaman)? Also, the Aquaman sequel finds its writer. 4. Interview with Jay Baruchel 5. The great Marvel DC food fight of 2019. 6. Jack Black wants to be The Penguin. 7. Captain Marvel’s website is 90s Tastic. 8. Gotham showrunner teases finale feeling like a Batman pilot 9. Jupiter’s Legacy cast announced for Netflix. 10. New Umbrella Academy teaser released. 11. First look at Pennyworth. 12. BAFTAS & Grammy’s: BP & Spider-Verse still racking ’em up 13. Bryan Singer and Red Sonja movie halted…for now. 14. EC Comics comes to Netflix: Weird Fantasy & a Bill Gaines biopic. 15. Comic Book Pull List 16. Twitter Questions Follow Coy: https://twitter.com/CoyJandreau Follow Amy: https://twitter.com/enthusiamy Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/MikeKalinowski Follow Jay: https://twitter.com/BaruchelNDG SUBSCRIBE TO THE COLLIDER NETWORK Collider Videos: https://bit.ly/2n1MZb7 Collider Quick: https://bit.ly/2OyLjSU Collider Games: https://bit.ly/2vszg0Z Collider Sports: https://bit.ly/2Au5rmv Collider Podcasts: https://bit.ly/1qU5ENT Pro Wrestling Sheet: https://bit.ly/2LKhWzy Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ColliderVideo Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/ColliderVideo Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/colliderdotcom Visit Collider: http://collider.com Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Collider Subscribe to Collider Podcasts on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or at https://podcastone.com/network/Collider COLLIDER VIDEOS PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE: MONDAY Collider Live! - 1p ET / 10a PT For Your Consideration - 4p ET / 1p PT Collider Movie Talk (LIVE) - 7p ET / 4p PT TUESDAY Collider Live! - 1p ET / 10a PT Collider Movie Talk (LIVE) - 7p ET / 4p PT WEDNESDAY Collider Live! - 1p ET / 10a PT Collider Heroes - 4p ET / 1p PT Collider Movie Talk (LIVE) - 7p ET / 4p PT THURSDAY Collider Jedi Council (LIVE) - 1p ET / 10a PT Collider Movie Talk (LIVE) - 7p ET / 4p PT FRIDAY Movie Review Talk with Scott Mantz - 1p ET / 10a PT SATURDAY & SUNDAY Collider Mailbag - 1p ET / 10a PT Plus MOVIE REVIEWS, EDITORIALS, SPOILER TALK, MOVIE COMMENTARIES and much more each week. Subscribe today! http://bit.ly/2z80n4O
And why shouldn’t you? This week Dan talks about the announced Aquaman spinoff, Max talks about the Creepshow TV Series that’s coming out soon, Dan discovers he didn’t know about Pennyworth and is really excited for more cool DC TV, and Max rounds us out with discussion about the soon to be on TV Weird Fantasy show based on the old comics and also the Bill Gaines biopic that’s in the works!Is there something you think we should see or want to know if we’ve seen? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter!
After MAD magazine's move from NYC to Burbank, California, Senior Editor Emeritus Joe Raiola reflects on his 33-year career at MAD, whether the rebooted MAD might be more like a comic book, tells some classic stories about office life with William M. Gaines, and reveals what he's doing with his new-found free time back in New York: practicing Zen meditation.
Alex Galactic Grand, Bill Assteroid Field, and Jim Jupiter Thompson discuss 1953 and the science fiction genre. Was EC Comics the King of Science Fiction? Who invented Science Fiction Comics and why were they popular at this time? Why did traditional Science Fiction die out as a comic book genre. What was the relationship between Bill Gaines and Wally Wood, and who are the best science fiction comic book artists of the time? Which science fiction author jumped on the comic book bandwagon? How did the Superman TV show bury Shazam and trigger Martin Goodman? Who pulls the biggest boner this episode? Harry Harrison, Wally Wood, Joe Orlando and more! No Sense Remix - Standard License, EC Comics ©Gaines, Adventures of Superman ©Warner Bros, Astro Boy ©Tezuka. Support us at https://www.patreon.com/comicbookhistoriansPodcast and Audio ©℗ 2019 Comic Book HistoriansSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/comicbookhistorians)
Alex Gravedigger Grand, Bill Field of Screams, and Jim Empty Tomb Thompson discuss 1953 and the horror genre. Was EC Comics the King of Horror? Who invented horror comics? What other comics made horror and were they any good? Why did Crime Comics naturally lead into Horror? What was the relationship between Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein, and who are the best horror comic book artists of the time? Why did Wertham write anti-comics articles for the Ladies Home Journal? What psychologically led toward such a morbid interest in horror at this time in the USA? Why are we called Tripod? Jack Davis, Howard Nostrand, Reed Crandall, Joe Orlando and more! No Sense Remix - Standard License, EC Comics ©Gaines. Support us at https://www.patreon.com/comicbookhistoriansPodcast and Audio ©℗ 2019 Comic Book HistoriansSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/comicbookhistorians)
Time Codes: 00:00:25 - Introduction 00:02:24 - Setup of interview 00:03:34 - Interview with Ger Apeldoorn 01:06:35 - Wrap up 01:08:17 - Contact us Just in time for the San Diego Comic-Con -- where he and Craig Yoe will be meeting with fans and signing books -- Ger Apeldoorn is on the show to talk with Derek about his new book, Behaving Madly: Zany, Loco, Cockeyed, Rip-off, Satire Magazines (IDW/Yoe Books). It's a beautifully produced work that highlights the many knockoffs of Bill Gaines's Mad that appeared between 1954 to 1959, attempting to capitalize on the kind of success the Usual Gang of Idiots enjoyed once the title changed to magazine format. These Mad wannabes appeared with such titles as From Here to Insanity, Cockeyed, Bunk!, SNAFU, Lunatickle, Who Goofed?, Thimk, Shook Up, Frenzy, Frantic!, Loco, Zany, and Nuts! You might think -- or thimk -- that these rip-offs would all be cheesy and subpar, but as Ger makes clear, these short-lived satire magazines included work from such comics legends as Jack Davis, Al Jaffee, Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Howard Nostrand, Bob Powell, Ross Andru, Basil Wolverton, and Russ Heath. Derivative and second-rate? Perhaps. But the selections in Behaving Madly are no laughing matter. Well...actually, they are. Check out this great promo from Yoe Books!
It the last stop of Chris (@acecomics) and Reggie's (@reggiereggie) five-part comic book history tour, as seen through the lens of the Comics Code Authority! First, we learn about the fates of our Comics Code triumvirate: Senator Estes Kefauver, Dr. Frederic Wertham, and publisher Bill Gaines. Then we take a quick trip around the world and see how the comics industry has developed in those countries that never imposed the same restrictions on content as America. Now we have come to the conclusion of the CCA, and Chris and Reggie offer their thoughts and opinions on the ramifications of a post-Code world. They look at new public pressures that affect publisher decisions today, and examine some of the sources that drive self-censorship in other entertainment industries today! There's something to piss of everyone in this second half of episode five, you won't want to miss it! weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com
Chris (@AceComics) and Reggie (@reggiereggie) get to the meat and cheese of their five-part look at the Comics Code Authority: 1954's Senate Hearings on Juvenile Delinquency, starring Senator Estes Kefauver! They look at increasing anti-comics public sentiment and the exact comic book that served as the tipping point and legitimized federal investigation. Then, they take you through all three days of the hearings, talking about each witness and their testimonies, while interjecting the usual silly commentary. http://www.thecomicbooks.com/1954senatetranscripts.html Full Transcript of the Senate Subcommittee's Hearings on Juvenile Delinquency https://youtu.be/jXKKTX1ke90 Senator Estes Kefauver on What's My Line? March 8, 1951 http://cbldf.org/2012/10/the-incredible-true-story-of-joe-shusters-nights-of-horror/ Joe Shuster, Frederic Wertham, and the Brooklyn Thrill Killers weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com tags: Estes Kefauver, The Comics Code Authority, Dr. Frederic Wertham, Bill Gaines, anti-comics crusade, EC Comics, Panic #1, comic books, comic history, juvenile delinquency
Listen as Bill Gaines describes the efforts of Grow Manufacturing to improve prospects of manufacturers and the local communities.Click to view: show page on Awesound
In which Nextwave is both canon and not-canon; Inferno officially begins; X-Terminators is basically a cartoon; Bill Gaines cannot catch a break; Artie and Leach are superbabies; Takeshi Matsuya is For more information on this and other episodes, check out xplainthexmen.com!
We give you a lot on which to chew before we head out to the wonders of C2E2, including Fantagraphics' The Sincerest Form of Parody (Mort Walker, Don Martin, Will Elder, Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, EC Comics and Bill Gaines, Frank Robbins, MAD, humor in America, Underground comics, Cracked, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, Howard Nostrand, and more), Womanthology: Heroic from IDW (Fiona Staples, Renae DeLiz, Coleen Doran, Ming Doyle, Camilla D'Erico, and many, many more), Chris Mitten and Antony Johnston's Wasteland from ONI, Atomic Robo, John Carter: Gods of Mars and Ramon Perez (Skottie Young, Tale of Sand), Bob Layton's Hercules: Prince of Power minis, a Creator Spotlight on Kurt Busiek (Astro City, Marvels, Thunderbolts, Kingdom Come, Ninjak, Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, and more), Tom Scioli and American Barbarian, Chris Pitzer and Project: Superior from AdHouse, Witchblade and Diego Bernard, Bomb Queen volume seven by Jimmie Robinson, Ghost Rider, Chip Kidd, and a whole mess more!
Inner Sanctum Mysteries was a popular old-time radio program that aired from January 7, 1941 to October 5, 1952. Created by Himan Brown, the anthology series featured stories of mystery, terror and suspense. The tongue-in-cheek introductions were in sharp contrast to shows like Suspense and The Whistler. A total of 526 episodes are known to have been produced. The early 1940s programs opened with Raymond Edward Johnson introducing himself as, "Your host, Raymond," in a mocking sardonic voice. A spooky melodramatic organ score punctuated Raymond's many morbid jokes and playful puns. Raymond's closing was an elongated "Pleasant dreaaaaammmmssss!" His tongue-in-cheek style and ghoulish relish of his own tales became the standard for many such horror narrators to follow, from fellow radio hosts like Ernest Chappell (on Cooper's later series, Quiet, Please) and Maurice Tarplin (on The Mysterious Traveler) to EC Comics' Crypt-Keeper in various incarnations of Tales from the Crypt. In interviews, EC publisher Bill Gaines stated that he based EC's three horror hosts not on Raymond but on Old Nancy, host of radio's earlier The Witch's Tale (1931-38). When Johnson left the series in 1945, he was replaced by Paul McGrath, who did not keep the "Raymond" name and was known only as "your host" or "Mr. Host." Beginning in 1945, Lipton Tea sponsored the series, pairing first Raymond and then McGrath with its cheery commercial spokeswoman, Mary Bennett, whose pitches for Lipton contrasted sharply with the subject matter of the stories, and who would primly chide the host for his dark humor and creepy manner.THIS EPISODE:April 15, 1944. CBS network origination, AFRS rebroadcast. "The Walking Skull". A skull is dug up from an old Indian burial ground. It then finds its way into the house. Even after it's reburied, it comes back! This skull also bites! The drama lasts less than twenty minutes, the fill recording is a crime drama, called, "Death In The Doghouse." Willard Dexter is killed in a crowded bar. The story is also known as, "The Skull That Walked." Raymond Edward Johnson (host), Howard Duff (AFRS announcer), Jackson Beck (in the fill drama), Berry Kroeger, Lesley Woods, Alan Devitt. 29:50.
Inner Sanctum Mysteries was a popular old-time radio program that aired from January 7, 1941 to October 5, 1952. Created by Himan Brown, the anthology series featured stories of mystery, terror and suspense. The tongue-in-cheek introductions were in sharp contrast to shows like Suspense and The Whistler. A total of 526 episodes are known to have been produced. The early 1940s programs opened with Raymond Edward Johnson introducing himself as, "Your host, Raymond," in a mocking sardonic voice. A spooky melodramatic organ score punctuated Raymond's many morbid jokes and playful puns. Raymond's closing was an elongated "Pleasant dreeeammsss?!" His tongue-in-cheek style and ghoulish relish of his own tales became the standard for many such horror narrators to follow, from fellow radio hosts like Ernest Chappell (on Cooper's later series, Quiet, Please) and Maurice Tarplin (on The Mysterious Traveler) to EC Comics' Crypt-Keeper in various incarnations of Tales from the Crypt. In interviews, EC publisher Bill Gaines stated that he based EC's three horror hosts not on Raymond but on Old Nancy, host of radio's earlier The Witch's Tale (1931-38). When Johnson left the series in 1946, he was replaced by Paul McGrath, who did not keep the "Raymond" name and was known only as "your host" or "Mr. Host." Beginning in 1945, Lipton Tea sponsored the series, pairing first Raymond and then McGrath with cheery commercial spokeswoman Mary Bennett, whose blithesome pitches for Lipton tea contrasted sharply with the macabre themes of the stories, and who primly chided the host for his trademark dark humor and creepy manner.
Inner Sanctum Mysteries was a popular old-time radio program that aired from January 7, 1941 to October 5, 1952. Created by Himan Brown, the anthology series featured stories of mystery, terror and suspense. The tongue-in-cheek introductions were in sharp contrast to shows like Suspense and The Whistler. A total of 526 episodes are known to have been produced. The early 1940s programs opened with Raymond Edward Johnson introducing himself as, "Your host, Raymond," in a mocking sardonic voice. A spooky melodramatic organ score punctuated Raymond's many morbid jokes and playful puns. Raymond's closing was an elongated "Pleasant dreeeammsss?!" His tongue-in-cheek style and ghoulish relish of his own tales became the standard for many such horror narrators to follow, from fellow radio hosts like Ernest Chappell (on Cooper's later series, Quiet, Please) and Maurice Tarplin (on The Mysterious Traveler) to EC Comics' Crypt-Keeper in various incarnations of Tales from the Crypt. In interviews, EC publisher Bill Gaines stated that he based EC's three horror hosts not on Raymond but on Old Nancy, host of radio's earlier The Witch's Tale (1931-38).When Johnson left the series in 1946, he was replaced by Paul McGrath, who did not keep the "Raymond" name and was known only as "your host" or "Mr. Host." Beginning in 1945, Lipton Tea sponsored the series, pairing first Raymond and then McGrath with cheery commercial spokeswoman Mary Bennett, whose blithesome pitches for Lipton tea contrasted sharply with the macabre themes of the stories, and who primly chided the host for his trademark dark humor and creepy manner.