A Treasury of Victorian Murder Compendium

  The unsolved mystery of Jack the Ripper, the prolonged assassination of President James Garfield, and the strange case of H.H. Holmes; perhaps the first serial murderer in American history. Along with a trio of little known murders involving incest, fraud, and deception, this is the first collection of Victorian Era murder graphic novels by Rick Geary.
     If you love true crime. If you are a fan of the Victorian era. If you enjoy Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie, then the works of Rick Geary are right up your ally! 
    You don't have to be a fan of graphic novels to enjoy these historical pieces. With Geary's attention to detail and journalistic storytelling style, anyone who reads Ann Rule or can't miss an episode of Dateline NBC can enjoy this compendium. 
    I'm trying really hard to get my wife to read this. She's balking but I know in my heart of hearts that this is something she'd enjoy and demand more.
    At only $25 cover, this is a killer deal. Especially as each individual Geary edition has a cover price of at least $10 apiece or higher. Check this out on Amazon or your local library, like I did! 
    It would be a crime to pass this volume up!

    Worth Consuming

    Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 36

   When I was researching yesterday's article, I noticed that a novelty song had reached it's peak at the same time Fleetwood Mac's Rumours debuted. The song was called 'Up Your Nose With A Rubber Hose.' 


     Sung by Gabe Kaplan, the comedic song was based on a series of insult's from Kaplan's iconic 1970s series Welcome Back, Kotter. Well, what a better time than now to focus some attention on that classic ABC series.

     In the early 70s, Gabe Kaplan made a name for himself as a comedian. He appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson several times and recorded a couple of comedy albums. On the records, Kaplan would talk a lot about his wild high school days in Brooklyn. It were those segments that took the comedian to the next level.

      Kaplan was given a TV-show called Welcome Back. Inspired by his childhood recounts in his stand-up routines, Kaplan starred as Mr. Kotter, a high school teacher who returns to his alma mater. There, he's given a group of remedial students known as the Sweathogs. Kotter was a founding member of the 'gang' and as punishment for making the vice principal's life hell, Kotter is made to teach the next generation of misfits.

      The Sweathogs are made up mostly of 4 main students. There's the short Jewish kid with the annoying voice Horshack. UP next is the black basketball star Freddie 'Boom Boom' Washington. Then we've the Puerto Rican Jew, Epstein, and finally Italian heart-throb, Vinnie Barbarino. 

       Barbarino was played by the talented John Travolta. By 1977, when the show hit it's apex in popularity and ratings, Travolta was becoming a household name and a much sought after film star. We'll talk more about him before the end of this year...

      But right now, let's look at February, 1977. The show is starting to finish up it's second year and it's consistently staying in the top 15 of highest rated shows. DC published a comic book based on the show that ran for 2 years. Trading cards, stickers, posters, novels, and a set of action figures hit store shelves by Christmas of this year. But perhaps Kotter's most popular piece of merchandising involved music.

      No, I am NOT talking about Up Your Nose With A Rubber Hose. I'm taling about the show's theme song 'Welcome Back,' which was a huge success. Written and performed by John Sebastian, formerly of the Lovin' Spoonfuls, the song dominated airwaves in the mid-to-late 70s. Reaching #1 for a week in '76, the song even did quite well internationally and on country music charts.

      However, by the end of 1978, the furor over Welcome Back, Kotter was coming to an end. Travolta left the show at the beginning of the fourth season and with the other actors aging out, newer but very unpopular characters were brought in to save the show. But the damage was already done and in the Spring of 1979, ABC cancelled the series.

   Looking back at Kotter, I'm not sure why I liked it. As a kid, I thought the show was great and I used to watch it all the time. I'm sure it inspired in some way to become a teacher and now a chef instructor. But about 2 years ago, some channel started airing reruns and I thought it was awful.

      Every show was the same. Kaplan begins the show when he tells a long-winded story about a family member to his wife played by Marcia Strassman. Then after the punchline, the theme song (which I LOVE) plays, then the Sweathogs come to class, except Epstein who is always late and has a made-up note from his mother. Then Horshack goes 'Oooo... OOOOOO!' in hopes of Kotter's attention. Then Barbarino plays dumb about something. Boom Boom tells a pretty girl 'Hi there!' The principal insults Kotter and his Sweathogs. Kotter presents a moral to the gang and they get all thankful and start talkin' jive. Then Kotter is back telling his wife another dumb joke. End scene. Repeat weekly as needed. 

      Welcome Back Kotter was formulaic sitcom TV at it's very best or worst depending on how you look at it. It's a style that dominated the 60s and 70s and in some ways in continues today especially with reality television. As a kid, this sort of repetition probably made it more understandable and fun to watch. But as I got older, it became more tedious. 

       I think that's why sometimes a fond memory of something gets tarnish. You return to something you loved as a kid but thanks to age, wisdom, or experience- it's just not the same any more. Not every fond thing I loved as a kid is something I hate now. In fact, there are some things I hated when I was little that I am a huge fan of now. 

      The old saying is 'you can't go back home again.' In the case of Welcome Back, Kotter; the experts are right.

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 35

   

    Fleetwood Mac- Rumours. 

    It's one of the biggest albums of all-time and it almost didn't get made. 

     Prior to this record, you had Mick Fleetwood on drums, spiraling into a dark depression and drug addiction after the discovery that his wife was having and affair. Singer Christine McVie and husband John McVie (bass) had divorced. Plus vocalist Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who were an on-again/ off-again couple, couldn't stop fighting. 
  
     On the verge of a complete break-up, the band realized that they were happiest when on stage or in the studio. So, the group immediately took to Sausalito's Record Plant in hopes of saving the group through song. The result was Rumours.

     The album had 11 tracks and just about every song was released by itself and considered a master hit. The first track, You Can Go Your Own Way hit radio waves in December of 1976 as a teaser for the forthcoming album. The idea worked because when Rumorus debuted two months later, it was an instant success.
 

Back Cover of Rumours.
Image is from a 1990s CD reissue.

     My mother loved Fleetwood Mac and she bought this album the day it dropped. A couple of weeks later, I was conceived, so I probably heard Rumours a million times before I was born in November. Interestingly enough, I really thought that the song Rhiannon was on this album. If I was born a girl, that was going to be the name my mom choose. But upon a recent review of this song I was astonished to learn that Rhiannon was from 1975's Fleetwood Mac. Huh!?

The band, 1977.

    Songbird is a hauntingly beautiful song to listen to, especially if you can hear it while viewing live-feed of the earth's rotation from the International Space Station.

    Second Hand News, which is a poppy song to get the blood flowing is the perfect tune to start this album and I also really love the very serene Never Going Back Again. It's the needed song for those pensive times in thought.
   
      As you can probably tell, I love this album. Rumours is the reason I started the A Madman Turns 40 project. I saw that it's 40th anniversary was coming up and it got me inspired to discover more about my favorite year in history. If you can check it out on iTunes of Youtube, you really should. It's a quintessential album that is considered nearly flawless not just by me but by hundreds of critics and music reviewers. And it's the main reason the band stuck in out for another 10 years according to Fleetwood, Nicks, and Buckingham. 

Rumours inner cover collage of the band during recording.

      So check it out. If not, well my friends, you'll only be going your own way...
     
      Worth Consuming

      Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

1977: Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 34

  Sometimes when I can find anything good to write about a day in history in regards to 1977, I just thumb through web pages looking for inspiration. That's the case with today's article. While in my research, I stumbled across a couple of board games that I used to own that debuted in my favorite year. So, sit back, enjoy this trip down memory lane, and hope to roll double sixes.

Really looks like hours of fun don't it? It isn't.

    The Amazing Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four Game
     I remember this game being on store shelves for years after it debuted in 1977. The main reason for this was because of how amazingly dull it was.The object was to get your member of the Fantastic Four to the middle of the board which was designed to look like a web, and free Spidey from it's clutches. Why would Spider-man get caught in his own web? 
     Anyways, you played with colored markers. They didn't even look like the Fantastic Four! Plus one of the pieces was green. So if you had that piece, you had to play as Doctor Doom?! 
       I bought my set in the late 80s in original packaging at a local pharmacy. They still had 6 sets. They couldn't give this lame-o game away! 

   The Captain America Game
      I really wanted this one but I never could find it. The box said it featured Falcon, Cap's sidekick and the Avengers! I'm kinda glad that I never did get this one as it was just as uninspired at the Spider-man game. 
      The wasn't Captain America's first foray into board games. In 1966, Milton Bradley released a Captain America inspired game. It looks just an uninteresting as the 1977 set did. But I would much rather have it over the '77 version and have it complete because the 60s set also came with a free comic book!

I'm glad that the makers of this game
opted to not include a torso of the Kitner boy.

    The Jaws Game
   Technically, this game came out in 1975-76 and technically, it's not a board game. But in 1977, it was still on store shelves, capitalizing on the still popular blockbuster JAWS, which was still in some theatres and drive-ins 2 years after it was released.
     This game had a big blue shark with a gaping mouth. Inside were all kinds of things like bones and ocean garbage. With a set of tweezers, you had to remove the items from the shark's maul. But watch out! One wrong move and this fish would bite back!
     Now I never had this game. But I had a game very similar to it. In 1980, Lewis Teague released a film called Alligator, about a gator that gets giant sized and terrorizes the sewers of New York City. 
     Ideal (who also made the JAWS game) made a game based on the film and similar to the JAWS game, the gator would bite down on you if you weren't careful. Only, I think you had to put stuff in it's mouth instead of taking out. Regardless, I remember playing with that thing at my grandmama's for hours. I loved that thing.

Ideal's Alligator game based on the 1980 film.

    Star Wars- Escape From the Death Star and the Destroy the Death Star Game
      With the release of Star Wars, the licensing opportunities were unlimited. In 1977-78, Kenner released at least 2 board games based on the film. The Escape from the Death Star game is the most common. The board shows a wedge of the Death Star with tons of dots. It looks similar to the Spider-Man game and from what I hear, it was just about as complicated. But at least the markers looked like characters from the movie. 
     The second game is much more rare and it's the one I remember playing with for hours on end with my dad or just by myself. The board is a maze around the Death Star and with every turn, you moved the space station. Doing so allowed entrance into the Death Star's trench to randomly appear, so you could begin your run to blow it up. 
     I'm pretty sure I was too young to play the game right but with playing pieces that were actual tiny versions of X-Wings it was too fun to pass up. Add to the fact that the game would fight back as if you landed on a Tie Fighter square, you'd lose one of your squad- it was challenging. If you ran out of ships, the Empire won! It was the best board game ever- that is until 1983 when Kenner released a totally awesome game that had you dangling your favorite Return of The Jedi characters over a Sarlacc monster! 

    

I want another one so bad. 

     In those days, things didn't go on clearance as often as they do now. So if s toy store couldn't sell the item, it would sit on the shelves for years. Plus, my parents loved yard sales and the flea market and I'd sometimes find the cool games there for just a couple of bucks. 

     Looking back, I'd love to have a few of these games to play with again. Especially the Death Star and Alligator! But I bet they aren't cheap. Who knows, maybe this article might inspire you to scour eBay for a classic game to play with your family. 

 Well, I think that's a good stopping point for now. I enjoyed looking at some classic 1977 toys that I ended up playing with and I have a feeling I'll be returning to the realm of 1977 toys sometime again soon.

     Until tomorrow...
       

Red Skull- Incarnate

   

 Examining the origin of Johann Schmidt: the Red Skull. Being a huge Captain Captain America fan, when I came across this, I had to own it. I can't stand the Red Skull... don't get my wrong he's the perfect foil to the Sentinel of Liberty but I hate the Red Skull and everything he stands for. Still, I had to read it!

     From the economic crisis of World War I Germany up through the rise of the Nazi party and the beginning's of the Holocaust all the way to Hitler wrangling total control of Germany, Schmidt is there somewhere on the edge of history. He's just bidding his time until he can become a major power player in Nazi Germany and nobody will get in the way on his path to glory. Not friends, allies, and especially not those who wrong him.

     With riots, brutal beatings, racism, and terror, this scariest thing about this collected miniseries from 2012 is how much it reminds me of our world today. 

      I had a little bit of trouble with how innocent Schmidt becomes. But now that I've had some time to process this story, I think writer Greg Pak (World War Hulk) did the right thing not making the pre-Red Skull lad entirely evil. Having someone who at first had good intentions turn his back on his beliefs basically signifies that Schmidt sold his soul for power. Another grim aspect of this powerful book that resonates through the headlines of today just as much as it did 70 years ago.

     With an afterword that documents the historical events that pepper this miniseries, this is something that as dark and gritty as it is, should not be missed.
     
    Worth Consuming

     Rating: 9 out of 10 stars. 
     

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 33

  It's Groundhog Day. 

  So, of course, I went online to find out what the Groundhog saw (or didn't see back in 1977.) 40 years ago, Mr. Groundhog saw his shadow. That meant 6 more weeks of winter in a year that saw both some of the coldest days on record and an energy crisis because of all the massive snow that hit the Northeast.

   On this same day, in upstate New York, it fell a record 31 degrees in just 4 hours! On top of that, more snow fell adding to the epic totals that had already fallen a week earlier. I'm telling you, 1977 was cold- darn cold! 

    It's gotta be why I love snow and the cold, and yet from the Old North State. I hope Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow this year. I really want some more snow! I'm addicted!

    Until tomorrow...

    

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 32

Forty years ago today, two high school basketball teams took to the court. They dribbled, they shot, they rebounded, and they scored only once. That's rights, these two titans of the 10-foot tall hop battled to a 2-0 score to make history as the lowest scoring official game in history. Not only did it happen in my favorite year, it also happened in my very own backyard!

   The game was between the Hornets of Durham Hillside and the Person County High School team out of Roxboro. Other than the score and the participants, that's about all I can find out about this game. I can't even get a straight answer as to whether this game was played at Hillside or Person. But I did confirm that this game actually happened via the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) website.

Edited screenshot from the NCHSAA.

You would think that this record would ever be matched, but in 2015, two Alabama high school teams matched the 2-0 record set 38-years earlier.

One thing that I want to know is this- how bad were these teams? My sister used to play Pee-wee basketball and those games would at least end with a score of something like 10-7. Even the lowest scoring NBA game of all-time had both teams manage to score double digits and those were in the days of no shot clock or 3- pointers. (The Lakers beat the Pistons 19-18 in a 1950 game.)

Hillside High School,
possible site of the epic 2-0 game.

So we start February with an oddity. Even more odd is how all kinds of websites know about this weird game yet nobody seems to have further details. With this being the 40th anniversary of the game, I'll scour the Durham paper and update this entry if I learn anything new.

   Until tomorrow or more fun facts come to light...