Bongo Comics Free-For-All: 2016 Free Comic Book Day Edition

   

If it wasn't bad enough that my beloved Steelers lost to those cheaters in New England, there wasn't a new Simpsons last night. It wasn't a total loss however, as I had an adequate replacement to being without America's favorite family- a never before read Simpsons comic. I knew I hanged on to that book for a reason!
    The comic in question was the 2016 Bongo Comics Free-For-All. In it was a slew of new Simpsons stories including the return of the Pie-Man and his sidekick, The Cupcake Kid. But the duo must come up with new personas when a German pastry-themed villain leads Chief Wiggum to declare all baked goods to be contraband until the foe can be apprehended. By guessing how large the Chief has gotten since he took it upon himself to personally dispose of the illict eats, Springfield may be without cakes, bread, and donuts for quite some time. This is a job for Captain Quiche and his sidekick, Meatball Boy!
     Then with some fake Dracula teeth and some heavy-duty super glue, Bart managed to convince the town that Principal Skinner is a vampire out for the blood of Springfield Elementary students. An educational film on the dangers of video games hosted by Doctor Hibbert, a traffic stop headed by the Springfield PD and a segment called Krusty's Catchphrase Corner round out the book. The Krusty one-pager wasn't just stupid, it was STOOPID and I hated the art.
     Overall not a bad collection of tales. There's hardly any mention of Futurama in this book. Does Bongo even make a comic based on that other Matt Groening property anymore? Doesn't matter, I didn't really even miss it. 

    Worth Consuming

    Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 23

 

Roots is the main topic of this January 27th copy of Jet.

Yesterday I promised that I'd be covering a big cultural touchstone today. It fact, it's pretty massive. 40 years ago today, the epic miniseries Roots debuted on ABC. Based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel of the same, it was a massive hit featuring a slew of stars. Over the course of 8-nights, Root was literally the only thing anyone watched.

First Edition Cover of the novel.

     Roots was the number one program watched on all 8 nights it aired. Forty years later, every episode still ranks in the top 100 viewed American TV shows of all-time. In 1977 in an America which still had a long way to go in the ways of Civil Rights and race relations, this program attracted viewers of all races and ages. In fact, there's been documented proof that some viewers even changes their views on race (for the better) thanks to Roots. I think one reason Roots appealed to everyone was it's huge all-star cast!

     Beloved actors like Ed Asner (Lou Grant) and Robert Reed (The Brady Bunch) shocked views as sadistic slave traders and owners. Louis Gossett Jr. (Enemy Mine), Ben Vereen (Pippin), John Amos (Good Times), and Cicely Tyson wowed in their performances as slaves forced to work in a world that was not their own, and really didn't want them either. Big names such as Sandy Duncan, Yvonne DeCarlo, Burl Ives, and Lorne Greene also played bit roles throughout the course of this epic program. But the actor who literally stole the show was newcomer LeVar Burton.

Author Alex Haley, circa 1986.

     Burton played the younger version of Kunta Kinte, a young African male who Alex Haley credits as his first descendant into the New World. I later feel in love with LeVar Burton thanks to his tireless work as on Reading Rainbow and as Star Trek: The Next Generation's  Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge. 

Publicity still of LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte.

      The aftermath of Roots was mixed. As I mentioned, lives changed for the better and the miniseries racked up over a dozen Emmy and Golden Globes. But Roots also resulted in 2 lawsuits. Haley was sued by two authors for plagiarism and the author actually settled with one of them, confessing that he took some parts from a 1967 book called The African.

     Despite the scandal behind Roots, it's legacy has been long and positive. Two sequels and a spin-off  were produced. One of which was a 1988 Christmas themed film, that saw Burton returning to the role that made him a star, Kunta Kinte. In 2016, a remake aired on the History Channel but it didn't garner nowhere near as many viewers as the original ever did.

Online advertisement for the 2016 History Channel remake.

    I have to admit that I've only seen about half of Roots. At 9 hours, it's long. Add commercials and for a child or teen, it can be darn right infinite. But I remember watching some of it during a holiday break of some sort. I wish I could just remember when I saw what I did.

    Honestly, I also lost interest after LeVar Burton's role in the film was done. Don't get mad- there's nothing wrong with that. Shows lose actors all the time and when they go, so do viewers. Oddly enough, when Roots first aired, the ratings for the later episodes improved! 

      Speaking of odd, I can't find a listing of Roots airing in some sort of celebratory fashion on TV. So many other great shows get anniversary specials. So why not this one? Yes, Roots has gotten lots of due respect and love on many other retrospective programs. But really, TV Land or BET or even ABC dropped the ball on this one by not airing the program or even an anniversary special about it. 

     Maybe you can Netflix it...

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 22

   Upon my research for my year-long project of A Madman Turns 40, I'm learning that not every day is going to commemorate some major across-the-board cultural event that changes not just individual lives but those of entire communities. For example, tomorrow's article chronicles something huge. But that's for tomorrow. I need something to discuss today.
   
   Looking around the internet I found some really interesting tidbits that involved things that I have a particular interest in but weren't exactly watershed moments in their field. Some were cool, some odd, others tragic. All-in-all, these are great factoids but weren't things that I can really develop an entire article around.

     Let's look at a few: 

Another concert I wish I could have gone to!
ELO was in Texas!!!

• 40 years ago today some really awesome bands had concerts that I wish that I could've attended. The Talking Heads played the Rathskeller in Boston. Kiss lit up the East Coast and Van Halen was cruising around the Central Plains.

• Tom 'The Greek' Kapatos, bodyguard to Irish mobster Mickey Spillane is gunned down by a hired hand by the Italian mafia. This murder is seen as one of the acts that begins the end of the Irish mob in New York City. One of my favorite books made into a film Wiseguy/ Goodfellas alludes to this war between the Irish and Italians towards the third act.

The Bandit's hat is not included in the sale of this Trans-Am.

• From the Weird Drivers file: on this date, a man purchases a brand new 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am from Emerson Pontiac in Pekin, IL. For the next year and a half, the man uses the car as his daily automobile, meticulously tracking the 20703 miles he puts on the car after every use. For the next 36 years, he uses the car sparingly having documented a total of 48,975 miles. The guy even has details of every person to have ever driven the car and reports that it was only driven in the rain a total of 5 times. In 2015, 38-years to the day he bought the car, the man sold it to Carlyle Motors in Texas. As of Wednesday, the car is still at Carlyle, where for the price of $79,000, this replica of the car driven by Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit can be yours. 

  

  Nakata is widely considered the greatest
  soccer player in Japanese history.

• I noticed that a lot of soccer players were born on this day. Most famous is the Japanese player, Hidetoshi Kakata. I played soccer in high school, all four years. I don't recall there being very many teammates sharing birthdays with one another. 
  

• Lastly, Soviet TV airs a propaganda film called 'Buyers of Souls." This anti-Semitic picture will lead to the KGB arresting and imprisoning several key Zionist leaders in the following days. All arrested were accused of being CIA spies and basically tried by a kangaroo court that refused the defendants right to attorneys, making the prisoners defend themselves. The KGB would later demand that all who defended themselves were not permitted by law to do so and their testimonies rendered inadmissible. Eventually, Israel in able to negotiate many of the accused extraditions to the Holy Land in exchange for captured Soviet spies.

      This last one really burns me up. I have such a heart for the Jewish people. In high school, I actually made it a goal to marry a Jewish person who was a Christian. People said I was crazy and never find one. Well, I did. My wife is half-Jewish and my 5 children, God rest their souls, are a quarter Jewish. So for me, when I see Jews attacked, I see it as an attack on my family. 

      

       It's just hard to believe that after so many years, this sort of thing still occurs. It happened during World War II and you'd think after the horrors of the holocaust, people would have learned. Yet in the year I was born and still now 40 years later, the Jewish people are still targets of hatred and bitterness. 

     
   So much for light and peppy... But that's history for you. No matter how funny or odd you might find something, like the guy obsessed over his Trans Am, there's a tragedy on the other side world. It's one reason why this Madman continues to promise for the next 343 days I won't gloss over the controversal just to defend my favorite year.

    Until tomorrow...

Batman: Ego and Other Tails.

  Darwyn Cooke. 
  Another Comic legend that passed away too soon. 
  Damn you, 2016.
  Ego and Other Tails is a collection of Cooke's foray into the world of the Dark Knight. 
   In the title story, Ego, Batman is pushed to his limits. Contemplating hanging up the cowl for good, has Bruce Wayne's Id battling Batman's Ego (or is it the other way around?) in a battle to the death. 
    The second main story is Cooke's Catwoman: Selina's Big Score. Tangling with the wrong crowd has lead to Selina Kyle faking her own death. But when a girlfriend of a mob boss lays out plans to a major transfer of laundered cash across the Canadian border, it means Catwoman must come out of retirement and organize her own crew. But when she does it will bring a deadly figure from past- and it's NOT Batman!
      An eclectic cover gallery and short stories involving small time thugs, a villain named Madame X, Commissioner Gordon, and the love-hate relationship of Batman and Catwoman complete this collection of tails- I mean tales.
      Of all the material in this book, I had only read the Selina story once before. I wasn't really a fan of it then. I'm still not quite a fan of it now. But I had a greater enjoyment of the artwork as when I first read the book, I couldn't tell the difference between Darwyn Cooke and Captain Cook. 
      The new material was great. Ego was very cerebral and the artwork match it quite well. A little creepy but it was a good creepy- like the enjoyment you get from watching a really good horror story. 

    Worth Consuming

    Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 21

      40 years ago today, Disney released the film Freaky Friday in theatres. That is, unless you reference Wikipedia. I love Wikipedia but they seem to have gotten this wrong as almost every other website I've been to agrees that January 21, 1977 was the official release date of this classic film. I was starting to lose faith in Wikipedia when I came across a website called This Day in Disney History.
   

Original lobby card for the film.

      According to that website, Freaky Friday had been playing in select cities since mid-December of the previous year. This was the only website I came across that gave such an explanation. If you go to Amazon, they list this film as a 1977 picture. As I mentioned earlier, Wikipedia says it's from '76. Well, I guess that's fitting since Freaky Friday is a movie about things not being as they seem.

     For those of you not familiar with the movie (I'm talking about the original film starring Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris), the premise is simple. Mom and daughter have a falling out on Friday the 13th and wish that the other could see life from their perspective. For the next 24-hours the pair switch bodies, have some funny adventures, and then switch back with a new view of the other's way of life. It also has a creepy side when the dad, played by John Astin wants to get his personal freak on with his wife, only for it to be in reality his daughter in his bride's body. 

The evolution of Freaky Friday 1977-2003.

    How did this movie make it past the censors?! Even better, what the hell was Disney thinking? Obviously, this hasn't been a problem for the House of Mouse as they've remade this film not once but twice! And each subsequent version has the eerie incest scene added.

     Along with the 1995 and 2003 remakes, this body-swapping thing is an idea has been done to death ever since Freaky Friday's release. Films such as Kirk Cameron's Like Father, Like son, The Hot Chick with Rob Schneider, and Vice Versa with Judge Reinhold have offered their on take of having 2 people switch bodies. Even TV isn't immune to this idea, usually in cartoons or sci-fi/ fantasy shows. 

Before becoming a major motion picture,
Freaky Friday was a kids book published in 1973.

    But that's what happens in Hollywood, you make a hit and then all the other studios rush to cash in with their own versions, usually with disastrous results.

     It cost $5 million to make Freaky Friday. Over time it would make 5 times that in ticket sales. So the film was a major hot. Whether the film should be considered a hit in 1976 or 1977 is a matter of debate. But for this Madman, I will consider it a part on my favorite year.

    

  
     

Star Wars: Jedi Academy, Book 4: A New Class (Family Comic Friday)

  Victor Starspeeder is a Padawan with tremendous potential. He's got the makings of such a powerful Jedi that the teachers at the Jedi Academy on Obroa-Skai cannot properly train him. So Victor is transferred to the Academy on Coruscant where Master Yoda sees get potential for the young lad. 
     New to the Jedi Academy, Victor will struggle to fit in. His older sister, a star student in her own right, is mortified to have her baby brother at her school. His roommate Artemis wheezes and wears dark robes. Is he a Sith? Then there's the older Padawan whose taken Victor under his wing. He seems nice, yet also seems to get the new student into lots of trouble with the instructors. What's his deal?
     A New Class is just that: new students, new instructors, even a new author/ illustrator. After 3 Jedi Academy Books, Jeffrey Brown stepped down for other projects I guess. His successor Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Lunch Lady) did a very good job. His entry in the Jedi Academy series was similar but different. But that wasn't a bad thing. 
      I really enjoyed this read but I have my questions. For one, does this volume take place before or after the events of the Jeffrey Brown Trilogy? Just because this is volume 4, that doesn't mean that this isn't a prequel. With only Master Yoda and the Wookiee P.E. teacher Kitmum as the only characters that return in this book, am I to believe that a bunch of teachers up and quit all of a sudden?
      My other issue is one that I had with the Jeffrey Brown books: romance. All through the Star Wars prequels, Jedi not getting into romantic entanglements and marriage is a big deal and a major plot point. Yet, Victor's father is a Jedi and married (with children!) and the Padawans in these books always seem to date each other without objection from Yoda. So what's up with that?
      Yes, a lot of great characters from the first three books are gone. But I really liked some of these new ones, especially Artemis. But the annoying Gungan guidance counselor, meesa could do without. 
      A fun read that will appeal to young Star Wars fans. Not too silly and not too predictable. Being half comic book/ half easy reader, this book should be a favorite of both kids and parents/ guardians!

     Worth Consuming

     Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 20

President Carter's official Presidential Portrait,
National Gallery.

         40 years ago today, America got a new leader as Jimmy Carter became the 39th President of the United States. In one of his first acts as Supreme Leader, Carter will dive headfirst into a very tricky subject- the pardoning of Vietnam-Era draft dodgers. Due to his Christian values, Carter was personally compelled to showing others some mercy and as a result, pardoned thousands of draft dodgers who fled to Canada. Though many veterans protested this move, the act played a large part in helping the nation heal from the Vietnam War.

     Had he ran for President four years earlier, Carter probably wouldn't had won. But changes to the primary system for selecting the candidates made it more of a personable experience allowing for a little known governor from Georgia to beat out a Kennedy. Doesn't matter if the Kennedy was Teddy, Carter still beat him in a David and Goliath political battle of the ages.

      The Democrat Carter was a very controversial President. Not because he had some major scandal or was a total dirt-bag; he was pretty decent choir-boy of a fella. Not the debate over whether Carter was a good or bad President is because he was cursed with some rather bad luck. I'm not even talking about the Iranian hostage crisis or the flap with the Summer Olympics, or even the fuel crisis and huge rise in unemployment as a result of both international issues. 

     The bad luck I'm mentioning are things like how Carter fainted once during a jog from heat exhaustion on live TV. Plus, there's Carter's 'I lusted in my heart' Playboy interview that made him the subject of much ridicule over his morals and mockery as to his manliness. Let's also not forget the time that Carter was whisked away by Secret Service agents who protected the POTUS from a rabid bunny! (Seriously!) All three of which episodes were listed as reasons by one of my college professors as to factors that lead to the President being soundly defeated 4 years later by Republican Ronald Reagan. (BTW- she was a staunch Democrat and a biographer of Carter's presidency.)

The President and Mrs. Carter walking in the Inaugural Parade.

       It wasn't all bad for Carter. His ability as a master negotiator helped him foster a peace between Egypt and Israel. Plus Carter's  tenure in the Navy's nuclear program put him in the right position to deal with Three Mile Island, the closest we've ever come to a complete nuclear meltdown.

Carter's improbable run to the White House lead to him being named
Time's Man of the Year, January 3, 1977.
The same thing happened just recently with Donald Trump.
Both are sworn in on the same day, too!
Cue Twilight Zone theme...

       Jimmy Carter's career actually got better after his only term as President. He helped make Habitat for Humanity become a household name and even personally built some of the houses himself. He's written several best sellers including a children's book. His personal dedication to his fellow man has lead to him supporting dozens of humanitarian causes to which he won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. Plus, if there's an international crisis that a President needs personal help with, Carter is the man current Commander's-In Chief will call on to lead a diplomatic envoy.

      Being a liberal and Christian has resulted in Jimmy Carter being a very complicated man. For example, he's personally against abortion but has lead many campaigns to defend it's constitutionality and legality. Carter's never been afraid to criticize any of his predecessors, Republican or Democrat. Oddly enough, he's also the only former President to RSVP to be at Trump's inauguration today. (Obama doesn't count as until Trump is sworn it, he's still the current POTUS. And Bill Clinton is coming not as a former POTUS but as Hillary's Plus-One!)

Picture from January 11th, speaking on the eradication of
Guinea Worm Disease, another cause championed by the former President.

      40 years and 2 Dark Horses come out of nowhere and become Presidents. Coincidence? With election being every 4 years, maybe not. Or is it that after 8 years of one political parties way of thinking, people desire a change? In 1976, Carter defeated incumbent Gerald Ford because the people spoke that they were tired of the same-old same-old of the GOP with their vote. (Like with Trump, it was a very close election. Carter got more popular votes at 50.1% but carried less states than Ford.)

     I don't know why it is that Carter and Trump's road to the White House seem to have taken similar paths. I only hope that Trump's presidency doesn't go as bad or worse as Carter's did. Because if it does, God help us all!!!
   

A current and future President meet.
Photo from circa 1979.