Another snowy day in the Flathead Valley -- been about a week of this steady stuff. I saw a whole flock of wild Turkeys near the Conrad Mansion on Woodland Drive -- each one was about twenty five pounds (10 kg) and there were well over a dozen of them.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from San Antonio, Texas; Daytona Beach, Florida; Saint Paul, Minnesota; Plano, Texas; Vienna, Virginia; Minneapolis, Minnesota (Jim Keefe, I think); Reno, Nevada; Little Falls, New Jersey and the ancient city of Muscat, on the NE tip of the Arabian Peninsula, right where the "Persian" Gulf meets the Arabian Sea. The very severe desert beyond the coastal mountains of Oman is called the "Empty Quarter." The ruins of a legendary long-lost city were discovered right at the interior edge of those mountains, after everyone searched 'way out in the dangerous Empty Quarter for years.

REAL SLC Punk, not the movie, at: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW --Launching NOW! Outre Space Cinema -- Featuring: 1930's Rocketry, Spitfires of the Spaceways and Cellulose to Celluloid, Flash Gordon in the Saturday Matinees and Sunday Comics!





Thanks to Jim Keefe (Visit his Website) -- the LAST Flash Gordon illustrator of the 20th Century, and Flash's first illustrator of the 21st, for his recommendations -- HERE!

All-round cartoonist and good guy Jim Keefe wrote me to say: Enjoyed the comparison from strip to film. Fun stuff!
Put a link on the Yahoo adventure strip group as well.
Hope you get a lot of hits.
Outre Space Cinema's vistors since Jim's good words and link -- Minneapolis, Minnesota; Bombay, India; Reading, Pennsylvania; Vincennes, Ile-de-France; ?? United Kingdom; Elyria, Ohio; West Hartford, Connecticut; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; Manteca, California; Clementon, New Jersey; San Diego, California; Kansas City, Missouri; High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire UK; Calabria, Italy; Jersey City, New Jersey; Stavanger, Rogaland, Norway; Boston, Massachusetts; West Bloomfield, Michigan and Oslo, Norway. THANKS AGAIN JIM!

Charity Alert: Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: The opening reception at the Hockaday Museum of Art went well -- about a hundred visitors braved lousy roads to meet Nancy Cawdrey. It was a very colorful night!

Ch-ch Changes: Sir Edmund Hillary just passed away, one of the first two men to climb to the top of Mount Everest, and survive. His legacy of helping the Sherpa people of the Himalayas honors his memory more than any medals or monuments. He always shared credit with climbing partner Tenzing Norkay at the bitter end of a colonial age when indigenous people were hardly acknowledged, if at all.

Media Watch: I couldn't resist posting the following on Daily Kos, my favorite political blog --
Hlllary has gone down the mountain ...
...and will NEVER be president of the USA.
What was all that hubbub about Hillary earlier this week?
HE was over 80 years old and a native of New Zealand -- Hell, he wasn't even qualified to be president.
(What's NZ lingo for snark?)
Kos himself also posted a link to a HILARIOUS satire on The Onion's Website.

And now for my OWN Media!
Visit Cellulose to Celluloid


Flagrant Self-promotional Illustration
(Click to see a larger image.)
Alex Raymond's version of Princess Aura and Prince Barin in 1935, about the time his fluid "middle" period" began in Flash Gordon. (Lower Right) Universal Pictures' version of our Spitfire Princess (Priscilla Lawson) and the klutzy movie Prince (Richard Alexander) in 1936. There's a copy of Raymond's collected Witch Queen sequence waiting for me at Borders Books right now. I'm kinda honor-bound to do some more comparisons between the strip and serials in the future, but they were pretty tenuous after the first effort. Wish me luck!

That long gradual snowfall left a slurry of micro-marbles on the pavements -- lots of spinouts. Moving that big honkin' crate through the alley was a challenge -- luckily we only had to deal with less than a hundred yards of ice, snow, and black muck from the cars. I wanted to have a bonfire instead, but cooler heads prevailed.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors Jakarta, Indonesia; Mars, Pennsylvania (no kidding!); Edmonds, Washington; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Marseilles, France (from John Kilby's site); Oakland, California; Seattle, Washington; Brampton, Ontario.

REAL SLC Punk, not the movie, at: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW --Launching NOW! Outre Space Cinema -- Featuring: 1930's Rocketry, Spitfires of the Spaceways and Cellulose to Celluloid, Flash Gordon in the Saturday Matinees and Sunday Comics!





Thanks to Jim Keefe (Visit his Website) -- the LAST Flash Gordon illustrator of the 20th Century, and Flash's first illustrator of the 21st, for his recommendations -- HERE!

Charity Alert: Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: A big opening reception tonight at the Hockaday Museum of Art -- Nancy Cawdrey's American Silk Road; The Montana Collective Tour, and Old West, New Visions, featuring those artistic contrasts I talked about yesterday. We got the Call of the Mountains paintings back from the restorer, put 'em on the walls, and are ready to go! One question -- shall we clean up the beleagured floors BEFORE the event, or wait until half the county finishes tracking through the place tonight?

Ch-ch Changes: The dean of Jazz pianists Oscar Peterson passed away at the age of 82 a few weeks ago. I thoroughly enjoyed his regular BBC show in the 70's, when I lived in England -- Louie Belson was his drummer for that gig. Sonic Heaven!

Media Watch: The Oscar Peterson Trio on Montana PBS last night -- several live, often-funky albums back to back. One of my favorite Oscar Peterson records has to be Trio + 1 with flugelhorn master Clark Terry AND his eccentric singing. One cut named Mumbles was actually a HIT single in 1964. I was fond of Incoherent Blues as well. Siteen years later I saw Mumbles on a jukebox at Crompton's Roadhouse, and had a good time introducing it to the small Emigration Canyon crowd which frequented the place, including Bob McFerrin, the great Jazz singer, a few years before he broke out to become an international star. Thank you Dave (Crompton) for buying that jukebox!

And now for my OWN Media!


Visit Cellulose to Celluloid
Here's a full-color sample from my compare-and-contrast site. I put up a monochrome first draft a few weeks ago, but this one's better -- click on the image for a larger view. (Above) We see Alex Raymond's tempestuous Azura, Witch Queen of Mongo bowling over Flash and the Good Guys with a well-aimed gas bomb in 1935. (Below) Former Miss New York Beatrice Roberts, as Azura, Queen of Magic plays a similar trick in 1938 during Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars.

Persistant snowfalls, not like ten years ago when over ten feet accumulated in the valley, but anywhere from a few millimeters to a few inches the last few days.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Los Angeles, California (looking for Wini Shaw); Jamaica, New York (YO Stozo!) and West Orange, New Jersey.

REAL SLC Punk, not the movie, at: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW --Launching NOW! Outre Space Cinema -- Featuring: 1930's Rocketry, Spitfires of the Spaceways and Cellulose to Celluloid, Flash Gordon in the Saturday Matinees and Sunday Comics!





Thanks to Jim Keefe (Visit his Website) -- the LAST Flash Gordon illustrator of the 20th Century, and Flash's first illustrator of the 21st, for his recommendations -- HERE!

Charity Alert: Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: A good idea from the director at the Hockaday Museum of Art. Artistic Contrasts -- featuring traditional landscapes, portraits, wildlife etc. contrasted with modern versions of the same genres. We all enjoyed interpreting the theme, and putting art from our permanent collection on the walls instead of storing them in the vaults.

Media Watch: The DVD of Daredevil was alright, but I liked the way it began more than I liked the development of the story or the way it ended. I haven't heard much about the private lives of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner since they paired up around the time this flick was made -- no news is always good news on that front. There was a DVD-ROM section that outlined the history of the Comic Book, and some of its artists, especially Frank Miller. It credited Bill Everett and Stan Lee as creators, which is mostly right, but I would have preferred seeing Jack Kirby's name too.


The Art of Daredevil
(Click to see a larger image.)
In a rather spontanious collage, starting from the top left and moving clockwise, we see Jennifer Garner as Frank Miller's Elektra 2003; Miller (pencils) with Wallace Wood (inks) in Wood's last job for Marvel Comics 1980; Wally Wood cover from 1965; One of Miller's last DD covers circa 1986; In the center is Wood's definitive Daredevil design from 1965; Left of that is Miller's FIRST DD cover 1979; The lower two covers were pencilled by Barry Windsor-Smith in 1969 and 1986. There are inks by Klaus Jansson, George Klein, John Romita, and Al Mingrom. That tiny logo picture in the corner of DD #51 is by Gene Colan. Other artists who have graced DD over the last 44 years include Carmine Infantino, Al Williamson, and John Romita Jr.

After reasonably heavy snows, we had daytime melting and evening rain. Uhhh -- it freezes HARD up here. I had a HELL-acious morning errand to run, over frozen roads, with a load-out on slick sidewalks. No harm done, but nevermind what COULD have happened. BTW -- it's snowing again.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Lombard, Illinois; Nampa, Idaho; Somewhere in the UK (from John Kilby's site) and Matar in Northern Spain.

REAL SLC Punk, not the movie, at: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW --Launching NOW! Outre Space Cinema -- Featuring: 1930's Rocketry, Spitfires of the Spaceways and Cellulose to Celluloid, Flash Gordon in the Saturday Matinees and Sunday Comics!





Thanks to Jim Keefe (Visit his Website) -- the LAST Flash Gordon illustrator of the 20th Century, and Flash's first illustrator of the 21st, for his recommendations -- HERE!

Charity Alert: Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: I got the touring show up on the walls of the Hockaday Museum of Art at last. We didn't have as many hands helping this week, so there were some challenges to overcome. One of which was a huge crate I call "the coffin," which only held two cardboard tubes. It was about ten feet long and weighed around two hundred pounds (125 Kg). The two tubes were taller than me, but weighed a total of maybe thirty pounds (20 Kg) together.

Media Watch: I rented the DVD of Daredevil. I'm an old comic book fan, and am happy that the entertainment industry is mining my old hobby. THIS Daredevil was based on Frank Miller's re-invention of the character when he first made his mark at Marvel Comics. He successfully revisualized Batman, as The Dark Knight, but it took another decade before his talent was recognized by Hollywood, and the public at large, as something special. There is a lot more to say about Miller, and the Superhero Genre, but I'm going to stick with this minor character from mid-60's Marvel today.
Daredevil's alter ego is a blind lawyer named Matt Murdock. His super-persona doesn't rely on sight at all, or super-strength, but hyper-developed senses, surprise, and intelligence -- however he'd be dead without his versatile billy-club, which sports a guyline that allows him to dive and swing around the canyons of New York City. "The secret is simplicity itself, but nobody's guessed it!" said Murdock one day as he was getting his kit ready to go.
Daredevil was one of Marvel's later and lesser creations, despite the fact that real-life super-model Twiggy (Leslie Hornby) wore his promotional T-shirt in a photo. The story that intrests me is the story of his artists, who were responsible for most of the plotting at Marvel, not to mention the gimmicks and design of their characters. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby worked up most of the basic concepts in the glory days of the early 60's and turned them over to members of the "Bullpen." In Daredevil's case, Bill Everett drew and inked the first issue. He had worked for the company when it first published comic books in 1939. He created the Sub-Mariner, and drew various features and fill-ins until their bankruptcy in the mid-50's. He had been absent from Marvel's superhero revival until Daredevil #1. What was funny was that he disappeared again immediately. (I recently learned that he inherited some money and went on an extended vacation.)
What happened next in Daredevil was a plundering of talent from the competition at Mad Magazine and DC Comics with major effects on the future Marvel Comics Group. At first, Mad's Joe Orlando pencilled the next few stories, with Vince Colletta's scratchy inks. (Well-used on Jack Kirby's Thor.) Next was Orlando's friend Wallace Wood, one of comicdom's greatest achievers and greatest tragedies, who created Daredevil's sleek, red look (and his billy club) before moving on to lead Tower Comics' Thunder Agents. Free agent Bob Powell, another veteran from the Golden Age of Comics, filled-in between Wood and John Romita. Kirby initially laid out some issues for Romita, who had been drawing Romance Comics at DC, but it wasn't long before he drew Daredevil and Spider Man duking it out. It was a very successful matchup among the fans, and within months Romita took over the later feature when Steve Ditko quit, with inker Mike Esposito, who moonlighted between both companies. Daredevil finally got a regular atist when Gene Colan followed Romita over from DC's Romance Comics, along with prolific inker Frank Giacoia. Together and separately they worked at Marvel for most of another generation. Joe Orlando became an artist/editor at DC. Bill Everett came back to Marvel in the late 60's, drawing Sub-Mariner again, and brought his old creation to artistic respectability before his death. Colan's first tenure at Daredevil ended when brilliant young Englishman Barry Windsor Smith eaked out a few issues under "the worst of circumstances" before he legally immigrated to the U.S. and did MUCH better work. Frank Miller came in after Marvel's bankruptcy in the 70's. He made more out of Matt Murdock's character, re-adapted the Kingpin, a Romita villain from Spider Man, and created the fatal femme Elektra in a memorable and original saga. The movie taps into this fertile creative period. It was too bad Hollywood also followed Miller off a cliff with his Elektra sequel.

Once more for my OWN media --
Cellulose to Celluloid -- My NEW Flash Gordon Web project, co-starring the original Princess Aura and Azura, Witch Queen of Mongo.


40 Years of Daredevil
Click for a larger image
(L to R) Villainess Elektra, as drawn by creator Frank Miller; Elektra Natchios, as played by Jennifer (Alias) Garner in the movies; Daredevil #1 by Jack Kirby and Bill Everett; (inset) Red DD, as redesigned by Wallace Wood. My very FIRST "number one" back-issue as a serious collector was Daredevil #1 -- purchased in 1968 at an antique store in Salt Lake City. I got the first ten Avengers from Ken Sanders around the same time.