Monday, July 21, 2025

Russkie-Smashers THE FBI STORY

Remember the "Good Ol' Days" When We Could, More Often Then Not, Trust the FBI?

To demonstrate this, we submit Exhibit A, an excerpt from Dell's Four Color Comics #1069: The FBI Story (1959), an adaptation of the movie of the same name!






Adapted by writers Eric Freiwald and Robert Schaefer and ilustrated by Alex Toth, the movie covered the career of "everyman" agent Chip Hardesty played by Jimmy Stewart, from 1924 to the "present" of 1959, fighting bootleggers, Nazis, the KKK, and, of course, Russkie Commies!
Of course, there was no CGI to "de-age" Stewart for the chronoligically-earlier scenes, so they depended on makeup and hair dye for those scenes.

Foreign movie poster with the "younger" Jimmy Stewart.

Comic cover with pic of the "current" (1959) Jimmy Stewart.
The flick was filmed with the full cooperation of the FBI, since J Edgar Hoover had total approval over the final edit!
Here's the trailer for the movie, which features a cameo by J Edgar...
Enjoy!

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Alex Toth in Hollywood
(which reprints the complete comic)
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Monday, July 14, 2025

The Hero You Never Got to Know CAPTAIN JUSTICE "Once a Hero" Part 2

We Have Already Seen...

Back cover of the VHS release of the pilot episode "Believers".
...well, this sorta conveys what's going on!
But let's see if the comic itself can do better...


OK, close enough.
Let's continue...












To Be Concluded Tomorrow at Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!
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Monday, July 7, 2025

The Hero You Never Got to Know CAPTAIN JUSTICE "Once a Hero" Part 1

Once Upon a Time...

...there was a "high-concept" TV series about comic book characters entering the "real" world!
It was so kool that Stan Lee was scheduled to do a cameo appearance, and even wrote the intro for the comic book adaptation...

Well, that was the plan...












To Be Continued Tomorrow at Secret Sanctum of Captain Video!
Adapted from Dusty Kaye's screenplay by J M DeMatteis and illustrated by Steve Leialoha, Marvel's Captain Justice #1 (1988) took the 90-minute pilot episode and converted it into a two-issue mini-series.
Though Leialoha tried to differentiate the two-dimensional comic world from the three-dimensional real world with simplified linework and almost no solid black areas in the backgrounds for the comic dimension, the technological limitations of printing at that time minimalized his effectiveness!
(For example, using a coarser Lichetenstein-style dot screen for the colors in the comic book world would've enhanced the visual difference tremendously!)

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Monday, June 30, 2025

Fourth of July Special SUPER GREEN BERET "Dawn of American Freedom!"

For July, We're Doing Things a Little Differently, Starting Here...

...with this whimsical, yet accurate, tale of the American Revolution...starring a 1960s Green Beret!









Tod Holton is an old hand at time travel, having already journeyed to World War II, where he almost captured Adolf Hitler!
This never-reprinted story by writer Otto Binder (who kept the story historically-accurate) and artist Carl Pfeufer appeared in Lightning Comics' Green Beret #2 (1967).
Next Week...
It's a surprise, kiddo!

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