Video Fridays: CAPTAIN NICE: Pilot Episode

Continuing our weekly feature "Video Fridays"...

Yes, this promo art was by Jack (King) Kirby!

In January 1966, Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward debuted on ABC.
This set off a wave of Bat-Mania, and all three TV networks scrambled to add superhero programming to schedules already crowded with science fiction and fantasy programming ranging from Man from U.N.C.L.E. to My Favorite Martian!
While one or two, like The Green Hornet, were done seriously, most of the new shows were not even campy tongue-in-cheek like Batman, but flat-out comedies!
The best of the new shows was the brainchild of Get Smart co-creator Buck Henry, who was asked to to to superheroes what he had done to spies, hopefully with similar ratings.

"My mom made my costume!"

Broadway actor William Daniels was cast as police chemist/mamma's-boy Carter Nash who gained short-term super-powers by drinking a formula he accidentally created.
Along with veteran performers Alice Ghostly (Carter's overbearing mother), Liam Dunn (annoyed Mayor Finney), Bill Zuckert (inept Police Chief Segal) and newcomer Ann Prentess (police Sgt/Carter's dense-but-cute girlfriend Candy Kane), the show tried it's best to capture the style and flavor that made Get Smart a hit.
It didn't.

It was amusing, and Daniels tried his best, but a limited budget caused a lot of the super-stuntwork to misfire, ruining the jokes.

After only 15 episodes, Captain Nice was cancelled.
Maybe if they had done a crossover with Get Smart...

There was some merchandising including a one-shot comic book, a novel written by the same author who did the Get Smart books, and a limited-distribution batch of trading cards, all of which are HTF.
It's not out on DVD, and unless you videotaped it when it ran on Comedy Channel around 1993-94 (like I did), the only place you'll find it is on bootleg dvds or YouTube.
Here's the pilot/origin episode "The Man Who Flies Like a Pigeon".
Enjoy!

Criminals are a cowardly, superstitious lot...

"...so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts."

Radio announcer Tony Trent, decided to fight crime after witnessing a murder committed by gangsters disguised as cops.

But what could he do with no evidence and criminals who have an unshakable (albeit phony) alibi?
Since a bat didn't fly thru his window, he decided to use a fright mask and pretend to be a creature of the night to scare the criminals into confessing.
The tactic proved so successful, Tony managed to use it for over 60 issues of Big Shot Comics as The Face, as well as two issues of his own title before discarding it, and continuing until Big Shot Comics ended as just a hard-hitting investigative reporter, operating without unusual garb or gimmicks.

He's been revived a couple of time since then...
In the 1980s, Ace Comics' What is...The Face?, drawn by comics legends Steve Ditko and Alex Toth ran four issues.
In 2007, as part of Alex Ross' Project SuperPowers series, The Face (now called Mister Face) was one of the heroes trapped in a mystic urn in the 1940s, but released in the present day with enhanced powers, and is unable to remove the mask!
Now, he can force people who look at him to experience their greatest fears!

And, of course, we at Atomic Kommie Comics™ have revived The Face as part of our Lost Heroes of the Golden Age of Comics™ line, including three of his best 1940s covers on t-shirts, messenger bags, mugs and other kool kollectibles!
But that's not all!
His unique cover logo is included in our Comic Cover LogoWear line, where the best of Golden Age cover lettering ends up on your chest or bookbag!
Plus, he'll soon be part of our Icons of the Golden Age of Comics series!
So, if you're looking for a comic hero who's scary, or a hero who's visually-kool, or a hero who kicks butt, go with The Face! He's all that...and MORE!

And don't forget to buy Project SuperPowers Volume 2, featuring The Face, I mean MISTER Face!

ButterFly...Against the Brothers of the Crimson Cross Part 2

Read the earlier ButterFly story HERE!

Art by Rich Buckler. Perhaps a rough for a splash-page or cover for a color comic reprint of the two Butterfly stories together. It was used as the cover for the fanzine "Fan Informer" in 1971.

When Last We Left Our Heroine...

After her performance was interrupted by an assassination attempt on a politician in the audience, singer Marion Michaels donned the garb of The Butterfly to try to capture the gunman.
However, the Senator's bodyguard manages to shoot the killer before he can fire again.
A small device on the dead man's belt detaches and flies off with Butterfly in pursuit.
She follows it to a warehouse and is captured by the Brothers of the Crimson Cross, a group of racists who intend to brainwash the helpless heroine and use her to provoke a race war...

 Issue #3 of Hell-Rider never came out.
A cover by Gray Morrow was shown in the back of some of the other Skywald magazines, promoting a "full length" tale (which was probably like issue #1's "linked" individual stories of Hell-Rider, ButterFly and The Wild Bunch).

Now, as to the "Secrets Behind the Strip" we advertised yesterday...
Rich Buckler, who drew this strip told the collector who bought the original art shown at the top of this entry...

It was Butterfly, a character I drew for them (but didn't create)--and I had given her a makeover (made her and supporting players more black).
I also wrote the story (but not the final script) that dealt with the KKK and corrupt politicians.
This was, I believe, the first black super-heroine in the comics, and I thought I was doing something important for them.
I got flack for this and Bill Everett was hired to touch up many of the faces (to make them look more white--go figure), and I quit when I saw the final result.

There's more, and I suggest you go to this entry of the blog 20th Century Danny Boy, where it originally appeared, to read it.

Thanks for joining us as we presented the never-reprinted Silver Age stories of Lobo (The FIRST Black comic character with his own book) and Butterfly (The FIRST Black SuperHeroine)!

We'll be doing more online complete story re-presentations of this type, so bookmark us or you'll be left out of the fun!

And don't forget...

to check out the  

Butterfly Comics Collectibles Store!

or

Lobo's Comics Collectibles Store

ButterFly...Against the Brothers of the Crimson Cross Part 1

Read the earlier ButterFly story HERE!

The FIRST Black SuperHeroine returns to battle a racist organization in a solo story from Hell-Rider #2. 

(Note: the first two pages are actually a two-page spread.)

Plot and art by Rich Buckler.

Script by ButterFly co-creator Gary Friedrich.

I know it's a helluva place to say it, but...

Tune In Tomorrow for the pulse-pounding conclusion!
PLUS: Secrets Behind the Strip!

And don't forget to check out the  

Butterfly Comics Collectibles Store!

Video Fridays: Nazis on the Moon in IRON SKY!

Continuing our weekly feature "Video Fridays"...

Regular readers are well aware of my love for retro-style visuals in movies, particularly flicks like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or the recent Robert Downey, Jr. Sherlock Holmes.

Iron Sky is a dark cross-genre action-comedy set in the year 2018, when Nazis, who fled to the dark side of the Moon in 1945, return to claim the Earth for the Fourth Reich!
It's is a Finnish-German-Australian co-production with a budget of 6.8 million euros, and very heavy on CGI.

Here's the first teaser...

And here's the second one...

The cast includes Götz Otto (Tomorrow Never Dies, Schindler’s List, Downfall), Christopher Kirby (Matrix Reloaded & Matrix Revolutions, DayBreakers, Space: Above and Beyond), Udo Kier (Blood for Dracula, GrindHouse), Tilo Prückner (The Neverending Story, Die Fälscher), and German actress Julia Dietze, a future Fantastic Femme if ever there was one!
Screenplay's by Johanna Sinisalo ( a 2009 Nebula Award nominee) and Michael Kalesniko (Private Parts).
The film just wrapped primary photography and fx will be completed in December.

What makes Iron Sky unique is the extent of the collaboration with movie fans and sci-fi community; "crowdsourcing" ideas and content for the movie in a collaborative movie making platform called WreckaMovie, giving the film publicity by sharing information online, even partially-funding the movie by designing and buying collectible merchandise and other means.  One million euros of the budget comes from fans. Pretty impressive!
Check out their About the Film