JL #15 AFTERWARD

Well, what did you think?

Re-reading it now, I certainly admire the bravery I exhibited by creating ten different nightmare scenarios. If this had been the real JLA comic it would have only featured five or so "core" members' dreams. I liked that I included everybody, but on the other hand, it does make for a long "busy" issue. I only distributed my comics once every few months so I didn't want to only use a few members. And in stories like this, it didn't make sense to me to only use a few anyway; if Dr. Destiny didn't kill all of them at once, the survivors would track him down for justice! So I had to have him attack all of them, although I guess I could have only actually featured a few....still, if my featuring all of the characters is the only complaint you have, I think I'm doing pretty well, haha!

One thing I seriously *do* think I was doing well is the coloring. This issue featured ten very specific background scenes and I think I knocked most of them out of the park, atleast color-wise. Here are two of my favorites: Mars and Paradise Island... I really liked the underwater scenes I did with Aquaman, Mera, and Aqualad, too, but they didn't pull out easily to feature here. (click on the images to enlarge them) I was enjoying coloring most of these stories, and I think it shows.

Another thing I liked about this issue was the amount of history I was able to jam into the story. For example,for the Flash I was able to feature six of his most dangerous foes. If I were the Flash, with his truly terrible Rogues Gallery, I would be afraid of them ever teaming-up. So it was easy to feature them here, and in one sequence we add depth to "my" universe. By the way, Captain Boomerang and Weather Wizard had already appeared, and the others were going to make "real" appearances before the series concluded. I had never loved the character of the Flash, but I have to admit I liked his villains. :-)

Another sequence I thought I handled well was Superman's nightmare. It opens with all of his loved ones killed. Sure, the scene is gruesome, but I thought it was something this terrible that would be Superman's fear. Then basically Lex Luthor is a bully, taunting him about his friends being killed. Superman kills Lex in anger, which rings true to me. I'd be interested to read any other opinions about this (and the other scenes, too).

In Hawkwoman's nightmare I was able to show all the other "Hawk" costumes in DC continuity, which I thought was a good touch. This was the time that the HAWKWORLD continuity chaos was in full effect at DC, so I wanted to be able to say "my" Hawkman and Hawkwoman would/could wear whatever they happened to be shown in, haha.   

Speaking of Hawkman, I liked how he was the protagonist of this story. It just made sense to me that if the entire JLA was put out of commission, it would be characters like him, Aquaman's wife Mera, and Batman's "son" Robin who would lead the effort to come to their aid.

Also, I loved coloring the JLAers being teleported. I thought I did a good job with those scenes.  One last pat on my back before we move on to what I didn't like....for some reason, I really
REALLY like the drawing of Hawkman reproduced below. As a kid I never liked JLA artist Mike Sekowsky's version of Hawkman. I much preferred Murphy Anderson's version, and then, later, Dick Dillin's version. In the mid 70s I came across an illustration of him by Terry Austin that I LOVED. From that day to this, that is the "template" I use in my head when I draw Katar Hol. 

The one thing I really don't like about this issue is Green Arrow's nightmare. I wanted to do something Escher-like or Dali-like, but I ended up doing something simple and not at all good! The idea was fine, I think, but the execution was not.

Besides that, the one thing I sort of regret now is that I didn't manage to wrap this story up in one part. I kept thinking that two-parters when done sparringly would be okay. However, except for maybe the first one (The Time Lord story) NONE of my two-parters really worked. In hind-sight I wish I had had Hawkman and Elongated Man rush off to find Dr. Destiny and stop him in a few pages here. Of course, you haven't read the conclusion yet so I should probably not say anything....never mind. Let me end this AFTERWARD with this image, the composition I swiped from TEAM TITANS' artist Kevin Maguire. For some odd reason, I didn't end up using it as the cover of the next issue!  :-(

    

WHM 2012 TV Women of the 70s

There were plenty of strong women characters on TV when I was growing up in the Seventies. I woul like to take this time today to talk about some of my favorites.
No conversation about strong television personalities can ignore Lucille Ball, but by the time I was cognizant and choosing what shows I wanted to watch (i.e., the Seventies), Lucy was mostly off the air. So she was never one of my favorites. I LOVE LUCY is a TV classic, and I may write about it some time, but it doesn't fit the theme of today's article. I do remember watching HERE'S LUCY (1968-74) on some Monday nights, though. This was her last show, co-starring an adorable Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. I recall very distinctly the episode where she tries on the diamond ring belonging to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton but then couldn't get it off. I think the most memorable thing about this show was the Puppet Lucy that started the show, haha!

Speaking of Lucy, her co-star in the movie, "MAME" Bea Arthur was also a huge TV star in the Seventies on MAUDE (1972-78). I remember watching this some, but more for Adrienne Barbeau then for Bea Arthur, haha! She scared me, and I was never a fan of her sarcasm. I never watched her later series, GOLDEN GIRLS, either.

Can you identify Loretta Swit in this
photo of MASH cast season 5?

Another bossypersonality of the Seventies was Loretta Swit on MASH (1972-83). Margaret Houlihan started off as "Hot Lips," a shrill, opportunistic Head Nurse surrounded by men (in a cast of more than a dozen men, Swit was the only woman). By the end of the series, she was a more mature, emotionally open, divorced yet fulfilled woman. In many ways her character mirrored the changes going on in women's lives in the Seventies: she started out as dependant on a man but wanting independance, straining for an individual identity. And while I enjoyed MASH very much, Margaret was never my favorite character.

Of course, the most successful woman on US television in the Seventies was Mary Tyler Moore. Not only did she have her own show (1970-77), but her production company MTM (with a kitten instead of a lion; I loved that) was responsible for RHODA, PHYLLIS, WKRP, and dozens more. I always watched MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW but as a youngster it didn't really speak to me if you know what I mean. I was more entertained by BOB NEWHART, whose wife character was portrayed by the wonderful Suzanne Pleshette. I've since come around, of course, and appreciate MTM for being a warm, affectionate look at friends working together.

So which women *did* speak to me? I'm glad you asked!

The first TV woman I really looked forward to watching was Lindsay Wagner on THE BIONIC WOMAN (1975-78). Jaime Sommers was a tennis pro and former girl-friend of Steve Austin (a man barely alive...). When she suffered injuries in a parachuting accidentshe was given bionic legs, a bionic arm, and a bionic ear (the better to hear you with, my dear). She made her debut on a special two-part episode of THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN starring Lee Majors. However, for some reason I can't recall now, her mind fought against the bionic implants and she had to lose her memory so that she could survive. I remember how sad it was for her to wake up after her final surgery and have no idea who Steve was, even though they had planned to get married. Talk about a tear-jerker! She was so popular that she had her own series spun-off. According to legend, actress Lindsay Wagner was so concerned about being type-casted as a super-hero that her contract stipulated that she had to play different types of characters as Jaime goes undercover to fight crime. So she played a teacher, a college professor, a wrestler, and a roller-derby player, just to name a few. It made for some fun episodes.

. No discussion of super-heroes on Seventies TV can be complete without mentioning Lynda Carter as WONDER WOMAN (1975-79). The original TV movie featured Cathy Lee Crosby in 1974. A year later the better known version made its appearance as a series of three TV movies set durin World War II. It became a series, but then switched networks (ABC to CBS) and time frames (WWII to the present). I have to say that although I watched it initially, after it became a series I was never a fan. Sure, I liked Lynda Carter. And I wanted to like it. But the stories got dumber, and the producers refused to bring in established bad guys like The Cheetah or Dr. Psycho. How many times were you going to watch Wonder Woman beat up spies and mad scientists?

Two shows where you knew exactly what you were getting were CHARLIE'S ANGELS (1976-1981) and THREE'S COMPANY (1977-1984). Oddly enough, I didn't care much for the first year of ANGELS, with Farrah Fawcett. It was in the second year, when Cheryl Ladd joined with Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith, that I really started to watch it. These three were "my" Angels. I guess I was the only boy in America without a Farrah poster on my wall, haha! I was never  fan of the Seventies "feathered" hair look, for one thing. Give me long, beautiful, straight hair any day! I had a soft spot in my heart for Kate Jackson from when she played a nurse on THE ROOKIES, so she was my favorite. When she quit I stopped watching it.

As for THREE'S COMPANY, I was a fan of it when it first started, but after greed got into the act I moved on. The original set-up was of two women room-mates finding a guy needing a place to stay; he pretends to be gay so that the landlord lets him stay. Originally cast with Suzanne Sommers, Joyce DeWitt, and John Ritter as the room-mates and Norman Fell and Audra Lindley as The Ropers, the show was new and usually pretty funny. Then after the first year or so things started to happen. Joyce DeWitt permed her hair, making her less attractive to me. The Ropers moved off for their own short-lived series and were replaced by Don Knotts. I'm not a huge Don Knotts fan; his bug-eyed expressions just annoy me. And as a character, a swinging bachelor senior citizen is not as funny as a perve and his sex-crazed wife. And lastly, Suzanne Sommers wanted more money to stay; when she didn't get it, she walked. The chemistry of the cast was destroyed, and it never recovered.

One show that I never stopped watching until she retired it herself was THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW (1967-78). Carol Burnett is probably my favorite TV personality of all time. Not only was she incredibly funny but she was honest (I loved those "answer questions from the audience" segments) and she could sing adequately. Best of all, she surrounded herself with equally funny and talented people. Her variety show was one of the few shows that my whole family would watch together. "As The Stomach Turns" was her continuous take-off on silly soap operas. "The Family" was Eunace, Ed, and Mama facing various problems that later morphed into MAMA'S FAMILY. "The Later Show" was their regular parodies of old Hollywood movies which I tended not to know, but somehow still found funny. I mean, you didn't have to know "Gone With The Wind" to think Scarlett wearing a curtain rod in her dress was funny...it helped, sure, but it wasn't required. Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway were her supporting players, and a funnier group of comedian were not assembledon television until The Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players. Her show had wonderfully talented guests, too: I remember Ken Berry, Jim Nabors, the Jackson Five, Steve Lawrence, and Betty White all making guest appearnances.

The last great comedy of the Seventies as far as I was concerned was WKRP in CINCINNATI (1978-82). This show was an ensemble cast with two equally wonerful women: Loni Anderson as Jennifer Marlowe, the receptionist, and Jan Smithers as Bailey Quarters, gofer-Sales Assistant-News Assistant. Jennifer got the big laughs with her visual high-jinks and arced eyebrows; Bailey got the character-driven laughs. Both were enjoyable additions to the otherwise male cast. Similar to the great "Mary Anne or Ginger?" debate, I couldn't pick just one! And that's my segueway to next week's topic...so be here,aloha! :-)

JL #15 To Be Continued....!

Continued Next Issue!

The Justice League is in a deep sleep that if they do not escape, will eventually kill them! Who can possibly help them!? Hawkman and The Elongated Man have called together the Reserve Members and Honorary Members to go after Dr. Destiny! Next Issue will be jam-packed with Special Guest Stars, so don't miss--"The Deadly Dreams of Dr. Destiny Part Two!"   (Next Issue on-site the week of April 2)

WHM 2012 Connie Francis

If you hear the name Connie Francis you probably think of "Who's Sorry Now?" or "Where The Boys Are." However, during her peak popularity she sang almost everything: rock, country, and pop (pap) standards. And she and Brenda Lee battled it out on the charts for Most Popular Female Vocalist for years.

Connie hit big in early 1958 with "Who's Sorry Now?" and followed that up with a dozen top-ten hits, including two consecutive number one hits in 1960: "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" and "My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own" in June & September. She recorded several of her songs in Spanish, German, Italian, and other languages in order to sell more copies in Europe. She was one of the first truly international stars.

What's fun for me as a pseudo musical historian is to know the actual records and compare them to the live shows I can find on youtube. In the late Fifties and early Sixies it seems that most singles are wilder than their "live" performance let on. For example, listen & watch the following live version of Connie Francis singing, "Lipstick On Your Collar" from an episode of The Dick Clark Show (aka The Saturday Night Beechnut Gum Variety Show). It sounds like the original audio track here has been switched out with the actual single. That's fine; except for the silly "nya-nya-nya" at the beginning, this is one rocking record. Afte you listen to that, come back and listen to THIS, an actual live recording of "Lipstick" from some nameless TV show circa Spring, 1959. Can you hear how the show's arranger has taken out the guitars completely and made it more of a "standard" pop song? It sucks! The same was done for this live version of "Everybody's Somebody's Fool". I absolutely hate how those horn were added! If I were to hazard a guess, I would say this was done so that the parents (in charge of the one television in the home at that time) would not get up and change the channel, haha. "Those kids and their damn rock and roll music!!" Unfortunately, it has the historic result of watering down what was, at the time, the closest kids had to "hip" music. :-(

Listening to this stuff now I think it has a certain charm. Also, as pre-Beatles singers go she definitely has more of an edge than, say, Pat Boone or Chubby Checker. Sure, Connie Francis is never going to be in the same "rebel" class as Janis Joplin or Cass Elliot, but I do think it's fair to mention her in the same breath as Karen Carpenter or Dione Warwicke. Don't you?

Russell's Ken-Bun-Ki June 13, 1996 "About the World Cup"

NOTE: First of all, I must apologize for not posting one of these columns since December 16. Really, I had every intention of posting! I brought the originals with me when I went back to Japan and translated three of them to post when I got back in January. However....somehow....I lost them! And then I couldn't find the originals to re-translate them! So...sorry, gomennasai! I'm back and will be here for the next three weeks at least! :-) 

About the World Cup
Last week, the International Soccer Asssociation  (FIFA) announced that the 2002 World Cup would be jointly hosted by Japan and South Korea. This is the first time it has ever had co-sponsors. Initially, the Association President said, "Like a soccer match, there are winners and losers," so everyone expected either Japan or South Korea to get the entire event. However, because the competion between the two countries was so intense, the decision was made to jointly host the event.

The competion between Japan and South Korea is not just about the World Cup. There are several historical issues between the two countries. South Korea last year (1995) celebrated the 50th anniversary of their freedom from Japanese colonial rule. They still consider the "comfort women" (forced prostitution of local Korean women for the Japanese Imperial Army) issue and the question of the jurisdiction over Tokushima (the island off the coast of Korea that Japanese call Takeshima) to be problems. There is not a lot of deep feelings of friendship towards Japan. Similarly, on Japan's side, there seems to be a long-standing attitude of superiority towards's Korea.

So this joint sponsorship of the 2002 World Cup could be a good impetus for the two countries to try to thaw out their relationship and become better friends. They must work together to plan the World Cup and make it a success, which I am sure they can do. There are many items in which they will have to compromise. For example, where will the Opening Ceremony be held? Will the Emperor visit Korea for the first time to attend any of the events? These and other difficult questions are not insurmountable. I am rooting for both countries.
    
Click to WORLD CUP-itize the Japanese :

POST-SCRIPT:
This article was written in 1996, when I thought the lack of friendship between the two countries was bordering on actual animosity. The "comfort women" scandal was handled daily in Korea, with their press handling the issue in typical EXCITABLE and DRAMATIC manner. However, those Japanese government men who actually spoke out about it were elder gentlemen whose basic responses were, "During war bad things happened. Get over it." Basically, the absolute wrong responses to what constituted government sanctioned rape!

Now I'm happy to report that these types of issues seem to have disappeared. The World Cup was a huge success, for one thing. Read the Official FIFA article on the 2002 World Cup or an article by a BBC reporter about his experiences in Japan during the World Cup. Although I was not there (I came back to the US in 2001) it sounds like it was a resounding success. Now, "K-Pop" (Korean pop music super-stars) and "K-Dramas" (Korean dramas and movies) are all over the place in Japan. Korean pop stars come to Japan for sold-out concerts (Korean students study Japanese in school, but Japanese don't study Korean). I'm happy to say that the situation between the two countries is much, much better. 

How much of that is in response to joint anxiety about China, I can not say. :-)

WHM 2012 Womensfolk of POGO (1)

POGO, the greatest comic-strip in the world, featured literally hundreds of characters in its 20+ years. Of those, several were women. Three of the best-known characters were Miss Mam'selle Hepzibah the skunk, Miz Beaver, and Miss Sis Boombah. All three played important parts in the comic-strip from January thru August 1969 in a storyline that was collected in the trade paperback POGO Prisoner of Love. I'll be back next week with my first profile. For now, here's Pogo surrounded by the swamp womensfolk and a meeting of F.O.O.F. (Female Order of Freedom) as presided over by Miss Sis Boombah, the Rhode Island Red hen. 

WHM 2012 Batgirl in the Comics

The first super-heroines I knew were Batgirl, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Mera, and Black Canary. Batgirl, of course, was well-known from her television appearances on BATMANand from her Filmation cartoons. Mera was featured with her husband in Aquaman's Big Little Book, Scourge of the Seas. Supergirl was one of the MEGO dolls action figures I had. (Although I actually switched her body with another MEGO doll, Dinah-Mite. She had a nicer looking face and long, straight blond hair than the Supergirl doll. Nicer! Does this make me weird?) And of course Wonder Woman and Black Canary were members of the Justice League, the book that got me reading obsessing over comics in the first place. I'll talk about those two JLA Women along with Hawkgirl/woman and Zatanna next week. Today, however, I want to talk about my all-time favorite...Batgirl.

Batgirl made her debut in DETECTIVE #359. After that she appeared regularly in both DETECTIVE and BATMAN, both as a guest-star with Batman and Robin and then as a solo-star in the back-up. She started out as a librarian, then decided to run for Congress as a US Representative from Gotham City. She won, and then for the next few years her adventureswere divided between Washington, DC and Gotham City. During this time she began a regular set of adventures with Robin in BATMAN FAMILY, starting with a wonderful story illustrated by Mike Grell (shown here). During this series it was established that they had guessed each other's secret identities (see panels below). Also, it was first hinted that they shared a mutual attraction, although nothing was ever shown that they were a couple (not even their fake wedding, which was actually staged to flush out some criminals). During these years Batgirl was shown as shrewd, athletic, and brave. In hindsight, this was the best she would ever be portrayed.

Several years later, after BATMAN FAMILY was cancelled and she was relocated to a spot in DETECTIVE again,  she was portrayed as not being in the same class as Batman and Robin. One story in particular had her memories wiped clean and she loses the knowledge of the Dynamic Duo's identities (although they kept their knowledge of her's). Another had her lose her nerve when she is almost killed by a sniper. Then in CRISIS in 1985 she faces depression and considers retirement after her good friend Supergirl is killed. It is at this point that she is shot and crippled by the Joker in THE KILLING JOKE. Although many fans protested this development, DC kept it as canon. In fact, BATMAN editor Denny O'Neil has gone on recordas saying he doesn't like the character; likewise, DC had announced that post-CRISIS all extra "Bat" and "Super" characters would be eliminated, meaning that Batgirl, Supergirl, and Superboy all ceased to exist.

Several years later, SUICIDE SQUAD writers Kim and John Ostrander took the paraplegic Barbara Gordon and re-introduced her as the heroine The Oracle, the information guru of the DC Universe. From her headquarters in the Gotham City Watch Tower she had links to all the major crime-fighting groups, including her own under-cover group The Birds of Prey. This group had its own series for years and even had an oddly adapted television series in 2002-2003 on The WB. In this series Dina Meyer was Barbara Gordon, but there were a few flashback scenes with her dressed as Batgirl, too. 

 

Recently DC has re-introduced three new Batgirl characters. One was a near-silent character named Cassandra Cain whose father was an international assassin; she took over the role in order to help balance out her father's evil. The second version was Stephanie Brown, the daughter of obscure Batman villain The Cluemaster. And just this past year Barbara Gordon herself is back in The New 52 BATGIRL series. I am not a fan of dead characters coming back to life or paralized characters suddenly getting to walk again, so I am not buying this book. I prefer my adventures to be fantastic but my drama to be realistic. :-) So as far as I am concerned, Barbara Gordon as Batgirl exists only in the past....