Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Overlooked Films: THE THREE STOOGES in "The Three Troubledoers" (1946)


Apparently this short was officially titled "The Three Troubledoers," but some of the promotional material left out the Three. No biggee. It's the Three real Stooges Out West. Let the n'yuck-n'yuck-n'yucking begin.



Monday, September 28, 2015

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN MASKS (Part 3)

Uncle Ben Cartwright

Wolf Dude

The Donald

Supes

Chewy

Vlad and friend

John

Fred

The Sarge

The Cap'n

The Boze

W.C.

Our first two sets are HERE

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Most Embarassing Minor League Baseball Caps (Part 6 - Balls)

Asheville Tourists

West Virginia Power

Hagerstown Suns 

Salem Dash

Las Vegas 51s

Columbus Clippers

Omaha Stormchasers

Can they get any worse? You bet! Come back next week.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Forgotten Books: FEARLESS FOSDICK by Al Capp (1990)


"Fearless Fosdick," I'm sure you know, was a long-running strip-within-a-strip appearing as part of - and sometimes seemingly in place of - Li'l Abner. It's complicated. And that was part of its appeal.

According to the scholarly introduction by Max Allan Collins, Fosdick first turned up in a minor way in 1942 and soon wormed his way back to become an important part of Abner's world. This 1990 Kitchen Sink collection features five Fosdick stories that originally appeared between 1947 and 1952. A couple of them are framed within the Abner strip, as Abner reads and reacts to Fosdick's adventures, while the others, including one that ran daily for two full months, dispense with Abner entirely.

In the beginning, Al Capp was simply lampooning Dick Tracy, but the longer the almost-a-strip went on, the more Fosdick became his own man, and the more the satire was directed at society in general. What I find especially cool is that Fosdick inspired the great comic strip parodies Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder did for MAD (the comic book incarnation) beginning in 1952.

Here's a small taste from the first tale in this book, "Introducting Anyface:"




Thursday, September 24, 2015

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN MASKS (Part 2)

Barney

Frank

Yo, Rinty

The Man With the Gun of the Man Called Paladin

Chucky

The Merry Man

The original Flash

The Boss

The Tramp

The first installment of this 12-Part Spectacular is HERE.. 

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Overlooked Films: The Continental Op in Dashiell Hammett's FLY PAPER (1995)



Christopher Lloyd stars as the Op, with Darren McGavin as the Old Man, and a screenplay by Donald Westlake. From the Showtime series Fallen Angels.


More Overlooked Stuff at Sweet Freedom.

Monday, September 21, 2015

VINTAGE HALLOWEEN MASKS (Part 1)

The Fox So Cunning and Free

Bridezilla

The Hornet

Mr. Nimoy

Smashed Hulk

P&O

Tricky Dick

Art Scott

The 6 Million Dollar Mask

Damn Dirty Ape

Beware! More masks approacheth.