Jon's Random Acts of Geekery

Dog of the Geek: Maximillion, The Bionic Dog!

2012-01-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

Breed: German Shepherd

Original Appearances: The Bionic Woman (NBC) season three

Other Appearances: None that I'm aware of, Max didn't seem to appear in either the two Bionic Woman novels or the Charlton comic book, nor did he appear in the US or UK Bionic Woman Give-A-Show Projector sets. Max is apparently mentioned by name only in Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman.

Biography: Before Steve Austin became the Six Million Dollar Man, Dr. Rudy Wells tested his bionic technology on Max (who had been badly injured in a lab fire), giving him a bionic jaw and legs capable of running up to 90 mph. Since the dog's parts cost about a million dollars, it was decided to rename him “Max-a-million,” or Maximillion, although everyone just calls him “Max” for short. In Season Three of The Bionic Woman, Jaime Somers met Max, who was experiencing symptoms of an age-related variant of bionic rejection (a similar thing happened to Jaime when she first got her bionic parts, which she was cured of). Max was due for dissection to determine the exact cause, but Jaime discovered that this was a psychological condition due to memories of the fire that injured Max when he was a puppy (puppy PTSD? You bet!). With this overcome, Max was fine, and Jaime was able to adopt Max.

Powers: As noted above, Max had a bionic jaw (which presumably had super-strength, allowing him to bite through just about anything, as well as hold someone in place as long as he wanted) and bionic legs that allowed him to run at amazing speeds as well as jump extra high or extra far.

Group Affiliation: I suppose an argument could be made for the OSI (Office of Scientific Investigation)

Miscellaneous: Max was originally played by a German Shepherd named Bracken, while other German Shepherds played Max during the third and final season of The Bionic Woman.

CBT BONUS: Crystar, Crystal Warrior Activity Book (different from last week's)!

2012-01-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

Dog of the Geek: K-9!

2012-01-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Breed: Robot dog.

Original Appearances: Doctor Who, introduced in 1977.

Other Appearances: K-9 and Company, The Sarah Jane Adventures, K-9, as well as a multitude of toys and other Doctor Who memorabilia.

Biography: There have been several K-9s in the Doctor Who saga, all robotic dogs. The first K-9, Mark I, appeared in the serial The Invisible Enemy as the creation of Professor Marius in the year 5000. K-9 traveled with the fourth Doctor and Leela until The Invasion of Time, when K-9 decides to stay on Gallifrey with Leela. It is this version that is supposed to be the star of the TV series K-9, although it is apparently considered a bit noncanonical.

The Mark II K-9 first appears in The Ribos Operation immediately, and this version lasted from 1978 to 1981, when he was severely damaged. The Mark II K-9 stayed with Romana when she left the Doctor.

The Mark III K-9 first appeared in the spin-off series K-9 and Company, presented to former Doctor companion Sarah Jane Smith, and the two have their own adventures, as well as cameoing in the 1983 The Five Doctors. The final appearance of Mark III was in the 2006 episode School Reunion, and he's fallen into disrepair, and sacrifices his life to stop the alien Krillitane. The Doctor presents Sarah Jane with a new K-9 at the end of the episode, rebuilt with the same mind and memories.

This Mark IV K-9 appears briefly in the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures in the episode “Invasion of the Bane,” and then only appearing sporadically. He later appears in the 2008 season of Doctor Who with new abilities, and then returning to The Sarah Jane Adventures in the 2009 series, staying until 2010, then reappearing in the fourth series' finale episode.

Powers: Various powers the K-9 models exhibited included a head-up display, ability to fly, laser weapons, and probably other abilities as needed by the writers of the various series.

Group Affiliation: Robotic companion to the Doctor and a few companions.

Miscellaneous: The series K-9 was not produced by the BBC, as they decided to focus on their own Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood. This series was much more aimed at children than Doctor Who was, and sported a much more sleek and curved design as its predecessors.

CBT: Cave Kids!

2012-01-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

Monster Monday!

2012-01-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

First up this week is this poster for Caltiki, The Immortal Monster!

Still from The Cobra Woman!

Stills from The Colossus of New York!

Lobby cards from Comedy of Terrors!

Stills from The Corpse Vanishes!

Still from Corridors of Blood!

Still above, and lobby cards below, for The Cosmic Monsters!

Plus, here's the poster for that movie!

Count Yorga, Vampire Mexican lobby card!

The Crater Lake Monster poster!

Creature With the Atom Brain lobby card!

Creature 500 puzzle!

Here's a classic Creature From the Black Lagoon item... the aquarium accessory, which was reissued a year or two back, but disappeared just as quickly!

Creature PEZ!

Creature From the Black Lagoon Belgium poster!

Still from The Creature Walks Among Us!

Lobby card from The Creeper!

Lobby cards for The Crimson Cult!

Still from The Crimson Ghost!

Still from Crucible of Horror!

Still from Curse of the Blood Ghouls!

Stills from Curse of the Faceless Man!

Lobby card above, and stills below, from Curse of the Fly!

The Curse of Frankenstein French magazine above, and Italian poster below!

Curse of Frankenstein Italian lobby card above, and stills below!

Curse of the Undead poster!

Curse of the Werewolf still!

Curuco, Beast of the Amazon Belgium poster!

And finally, these stills from The Cyclops wraps up this week's Monster Monday!

Puzzle Sunday!

2012-01-22T00:01:00.000-08:00

This week's puzzles:

Solutions after the jump!

Solutions:

Dog of the Geek: Lojack!

2012-01-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

Breed: Mutt

Original Appearances: Eureka

Other Appearances: None that I know of.

Biography: Lojack is the nemesis of Eureka's embodiment of the town spirit, Jim Taggart, although neither means the other real harm, it's the hunt that matters. Lojack is a genetically modified dog with an IQ of 150+. Lojack is responsible for Sheriff Jack Carter being in Eureka, as Jack crashed to get out of the way of Lojack on a dark, rainy road. He appears to be owned by the previous sheriff of Eureka in the pilot episode, and is seen occasionally about town.

Powers: Enhanced intelligence.

Group Affiliation: None

Miscellaneous: Trying to find information on Lojack was one of the more difficult searches for this series of posts I've had – although the most difficult was when I tried to find information on.

CBT BONUS: Crystar, Crystal Warrior Activity Book!

2012-01-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's another Thursday featuring Crystar!

Kirby Kovers #20

2012-01-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

First up in this week's Kirby Kovers installment is Sandman #4! Note that Jack used a basically circular design to frame Jed in, yet he also set it all off-kilter to enhance the nightmare feeling!

Next up, it's Strange Tales #101! Now, I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent here... long-time readers will recall that I had a feature going for a little while in which I posted covers with a similar theme, and one of those themes was carnivals and amusement parks. I'm pretty sure that I didn't use this one, probably because in thumbnail view, it's not that obvious! Anyway... here Jack makes good use out of the Torch's firey "tail" to draw your attention to the Destroyer, then to the men falling from the broken amusement ride, and then to the Torch, pointing back at the Destroyer again!

Next we have Tales to Astonish #39. Now, you know I love Jack Kirby's work, but I'm not sure that even he was able to successfully pull off the Scarlet Beetle as a visual threat... maybe it's those eyes?

Finally, we have Strange Worlds #5 (was this book reprints from another title?). This cover is a great example of how well Jack captured emotion! Look at the face of the guy in the front!

Kirby Kovers #21

2012-01-17T00:01:00.001-08:00

First up this week is Fantastic Four #99, and it's a great example of how Jack would fit a number of characters on a cover and give each its own spotlight! Although to be honest, I'm not sure how much good Karnak thinks he's doing...

Next, it's FF #94, and I have to tell you, it's one of my favorite FF covers... it's really very simple, right? The Thing's tearing down a poster promoting a fight he'll be in. But look at the detail... Jack didn't just have the paper tearing, he had the wall behind it crumbling as well, because that poster would've been glued to it! Brilliant!

Next up, we have First Love #67, which doesn't look much like Kirby's work, does it? Well, Nick Caputo identified it as Jack's pencils with inks by Jack and George Roussous, so it seems pretty likely! Weakest Kirby Kover ever?

Lastly, here's Kamandi #6! Notice how Jack has the lion men used as framing for Kamandi and his lady friend -- fortunately the colorist picked up on that and colored it appropriately, eh? There do seem to be some problems with the foreshortening Jack was using here, though... Kamandi and Flower (that was her name, wasn't it?) just look oddly posed!

CBT: Casper the Friendly Ghost!

2012-01-17T00:01:00.000-08:00

Monster Monday!

2012-01-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

A new volume begins...

... with this Belgium poster for 20 Million Miles to Earth!

Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires UK poster!

The Abominable Snowman Belgium poster!

Agata Revell Model! No, I don't know what she's from, if anything!

The Alligator People insert poster!

The Angry Red Planet lobby cards!

The Ape Man lobby card!

The Astro-Zombies still!

Asylum of Satan still!

The Atomic Kid still!

Attack of the Crab Monsters stills!

Attack of the Puppet People stills!

Aurora model kits, built and painted, of the Creature From the Black Lagoon, Dracula, The Forgotten Prisoner, Frankenstein, and King Kong!

Still from The Awful Dr. Orloff!

Still from The Bat!

Belgium poster for The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms!

A bunch of stills from Beware the Blob, which apparently also was released as Son of Blob!

Still from The Black Pit of Dr. M!

Still from The Black Room!

Still from Blacula!

Still from The Blob!

Lobby card for Blood of Dracula!

Lobby card for Blood of the Vampire above, and Italian poster below!

Still from The Blood DrinkerS!

Lobby card for The Brain Eaters!

A whole mess of stills from The Bride and the Beast!

The Bride of Frankenstein poster!

Brides of Dracula Belgium posgter above, and Danish poster below!

And below, stills from the same movie!

And this week's installment ends with this insert poster for Burn, Witch, Burn!

Puzzle Sunday!

2012-01-15T00:01:00.000-08:00

This week's puzzles:

Solutions after the jump!

Solutions:

Fandom Library: FOOM #20 & 21

2012-01-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

Kirby Kovers #19

2012-01-13T00:01:00.000-08:00

First up in this week's Kirby Kovers feature is the cover of Love Romances #106! It's sometimes all too easy to forget, given how much Kirby is thought of for his superheroes and cosmic comics, that he and Joe Simon pioneered the romance comic! I wonder if Stan assigned Jack to do this cover to see if the Kirby magic would raise sales on this title? I know that (Charlton aside) romance comics were already dying out, and would be all but gone by the early 70s (again, aside from Charlton). Anyway, Kirby's certainly using his ability for the dramatic well here... there's no doubt what's going on in the minds of all three characters here!

Next, the cover of Thor #163! You know, the more of these I do, the more I have to remind myself how many really great Thor covers Jack drew (when it comes to Marvel, I'm guilty of associating him primarily with the Fantastic Four). Who else but Kirby would dare to put Thor and Sif (the protagonists) at the very edges of the cover, barely seen, while focusing on the threat? Who else could make a bald guy in a trenchcoat look so menacing? (of course having said that, I'd bet that the bald guy is Pluto, God of the Underworld, or someone like that, eh?) Kirby makes good use of the logo placement, Thor, Sif, and Kirby Krackle to frame the image.

Nobody could do space tech like Kirby, right? Well, here's the cover of Eternals #1, and the tech is entirely with the Celestial here (even if he's not identified as such). Looking at this cover, there's something vaguely familiar about it, that helps you accept the overall design (something that can be said about many of his tech drawings). It's been pointed out elsewhere that Kirby would sneak in familiar items, but oriented at an unusual angle, as the basis for stuff, and maybe he's done that here, too. Looking at this, it almost looks like a lot of the structure is kind of a deconstructed microscope combined with scuba gear!

Here's another mid-70s Kirby Marvel #1, Machine Man, long one of my favorite second banana Marvel characters! I've always felt that this was a great concept, and one that would make a very fun animated series -- it would make a great action figure line, too... his various functions would lend themselves well to variations like the manufacturers like to make!

Here's another Thor cover, this one Thor #145! Now, I have to admit that I'm not as up on Thor as I'd like to be, especially the Kirby years stuff... but this cover tells me that once again, Odin has decided to take Thor's powers away from him and leave him suck on Midgard! Of course, this always seems to happen just as some major menace appears that the power of Thor is needed to battle! What's kind of odd about this cover is, there's winds blowing, red Kirby crackle in the skies, the people around Thor are reacting to something... and Thor's just sort of standing there with an expression of, "Well... crap."

And finally, we have the cover for Sandman #4... this was a title that Kirby's ability to draw the odd certainly worked well for, even if the book didn't last all that long!

CBT BONUS: Crystar, Crystal Warrior - To Capture the Magic Crystal!

2012-01-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

Fandom Library: RBCC Special #7 & Screen Thrills #1

2012-01-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

CBT: Addams Family Sticker Fun!

2012-01-10T00:01:00.001-08:00

Kind of an odd choice for CBT, but here it is!

Monster Monday!

2012-01-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

This week's first items... The Thing That Couldn't Die Mexican lobby cards above, and stills below!

Next, it's stills from The Thing With Two Heads!

This Island Earth Belgium poster above, and US window card below!

The Tingler Mexican lobby card above, and US poster below!

Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll Mexican lobby card!

Stills from The Undead!

Stills from The Undying Monster!

Unearthly Stranger poster above, lobby card below!

The Unknown Terror stills!

The Vampire and the Ballerina poster above, and stills below!

Vampire Circus poster!

View-Master Monster gift pack! Despite the Universal-looking monsters on the case, I suspect these are the original Frankenstein, Dracula and Wolf Man reels they did with the 3D models (all of which I have, I'm happy to say).

Viking Women and the Sea Serpent poster!

The Virgin Witch poster!

Voodoo Heartbeat poster!

Voodoo Island stills!

Voodoo Man lobby card!

The Walking Dead poster!

War of the Colossal Beast insert poster above, and stills below!

War of the Gargantuas and Monster Zero stills!

War of the Zombies stills!

The Wasp Woman and Beast From Haunted Cave two-in-one pressbook above, and Wasp Woman poster below!

Wasp Woman stills!

The Werewolf pressbook!

Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory poster!

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth stills, all lacking the titular dinosaurs!

White Zombie lobby cards!

Wild, Wild Planet stils!

Wolfman plaster casting kit!

Wolfman oil can puzzle!

Women of Prehistoric Planet Mexican lobby card!

X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes stills above, and lobby card below!

X... The Unknown poster above, and stills below!

Yog French poster!

Young Frankenstein poster and insert poster!

Next week, we start looking at Volume 11 photos!

Puzzle Sunday!

2012-01-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

This week's puzzles:

Solutions after the jump!

Solutions:

Kirby Kovers #18

2012-01-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

This week's first Kirby Kover is probably not the best of today's bunch, as you can see here with Tales of Suspense #63. Even the Cap figure doesn't seem to have the usual Kirby enthusiasm, almost as if Jack was thinking, "Man, can't Stan go any longer without redoing Cap's origin again?"

Jack definitely seemed more enthusiastic with the cover for Thor #142, didn't he? You know what my favorite part of this cover is? The fact that Thor's basically screwed -- he's going to fall down unless he gets Mjolnir spinning away, and he doesn't seem to even care... because he's Thor, dammit!

The cover for the one-shot In The Days of the Mob is different from Kirby's other Kovers, in that there's a few pieces of artwork at the bottom, but the rest of it is text and photos! Certainly there was better production of this collage than some of his earlier collage stuff, right?

I think maybe that the cover for Strange Tales #121 is my favorite this time around, though... because even though Plantman wasn't really a decent foe for the Torch, it's as if Jack didn't care, he was going to sell it anyway, complete with the Torch being menaced by a bunch of acorns! And Jack was the only artist of the day who could've pulled it off, I think!

We close this installment of Kirby Kovers with OMAC #6, which you can see has a very different look than the other Kirby Kovers... once again, Jack's work demonstrates a lot more stylization than his 60s work (as noted in previous installments). I must admit that I find it amusing that the number 52 is plastered all over this, given that as I'm writing this, DC's promoting their "New 52" titles, none of which I'm buying -- but I'd gladly buy any of the books featured in any of the Kirby Kovers installments!

Dog of the Geek: Jeb!

2012-01-06T00:01:00.000-08:00


Jeb is the one on the left -- the other dog is a mystery to me!

Breed: Redbone Coonhound

Original Appearances: VR Troopers

Other Appearances: Unknown, he may have appeared in the toy line or video game.

Biography: Pet to VR Trooper Ryan, Jeb is able to talk (with a voice like Jack Nicholson's) due to a power surge. Ryan got Jeb to promise not to talk around other people, so Jeb is usually silent. He's known for his mischievous personality and humorous demeanor. Once, Jeb had to fight as a Trooper when he and Ryan accidentally switched bodies. Jeb has a voracious appetite, eating any food lying around.

Powers: The ability to speak.

Group Affiliation: VR Troopers

Miscellaneous: Jeb was played by Zeb, and voiced by Kerrigan Mahan. VR Troopers was an attempt to cash in on the success of Power Rangers, as well as the interest in virtual reality. The show used Japanese stock footage from Superhuman Machine Metalder, Dimensional Warrior Spielban, and Space Sheriff Shaider, collectively known as the Metal Hero series. I don't believe that Jeb was part of those Japanese shows.

CBT BONUS: Crystar, Crystal Warrior - The Origin of Crystar!

2012-01-05T00:01:00.000-08:00

Fandom Library: Batmania #7 & 8!

2012-01-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

CBT: AD&D Storybook - The Treasure of Time!

2012-01-03T00:01:00.000-08:00