My Favorite Gerry Conway Stories

Some comic book writers get your attention right away. Like for me John Byrne or Keith Giffen for instance. Others slide a little more under your radar. That’s how Gerry Conway way was for me, after he passed away a few weeks ago I looked and realized he made a bigger impact on my love of comics than I realized. He wrote some of my favorite stories ever.

So here are my favorites as a tribute to him, shame on me for not recognizing him sooner. 

He was famously more of a Marvel guy but as always this will be focused on his dc work but id be remiss if I didn’t point out his most influential work: 

Yup one of the most iconic and memorable comic book stories ever was when Gwen Stacey was killed by the Green Goblin. It’s been referenced and homaged to this day. I should also mention Conway co created The Punisher. 

A Look at “The Mirror Universe”

One of the most enduring concepts that Star Trek ever created was the “mirror universe”. It’s one of my favorites and why not? The premise that our heroes are savages who will kill to get what they want is fascinating. It’s a chance to see our favorite characters out of character and having a little fun. Rather than review one episode, I decided to quickly run through all of them. 

Top 5 Star Trek Bridge Crew’s

A few months ago I was ranking the crews by departments, until I kind of ran out because the different roles vary show to show. Only two shows have a communication officer (gee wonder who was better). Neither DS9 or Voyager had a navigator (Sulu or Paris? Not sure, Paris is a better pilot but Sulu has combat experience), Voyager had no science officer (Data, Dax or Spock, ugh). And TOS had no security officer (man Worf, Odo, or Tuvok who would you pick?!). So I was thinking if there was anything else and realized I could just decide which crew was the best. 

So how am I going to make these choices? Basically which crews do I like every character and enjoy spending time with over and over. And I can’t stress enough, just opinion.  

My Favorite Moments in Star Trek IV:The Voyage Home

 So here’s a conundrum. This year is the 40th anniversary of one of my all time favorite movies. Star Trek IV was released in late 1986 and was a huge hit. It reignited the love of Trek and gave birth to Next Generation and everything that came afterwards. So what’s the problem? I’ve talked about this movie a lot over the years, so what’s left? I did an article on five things I “hated”. So many be this time I should the opposite!

Today I’m going to go over the moments I loved the most. I’ve seen this movie a million times even on an airplane, read the novelization and comic adaptation, and watched the dvd commentaries. So I know these scenes by heart. This movie was the first time I realized how adored Trek was by seeing it in a packer theatre that loved every second. I realized today I may have seen it the day it was released which may explain the exuberant crowd. 

These are in not in any specific order 

Five Things I Hated in “Ferris Buellers Day Off”

How is it possible that it’s been forty damn years since I had one of the funnest times I ever had at a movie, watching Ferris?. It was different with its fourth wall gags (common place today) right to that end credits scene which caught everyone off guard (nowadays end credit scenes are commonplace). 

Released June 11,1986 this movie is nearly perfect. Oh I know John Hughes may have more loved movies out there, but this was my favorite. It’s a love letter to Chicago that made Matthew Broderick a star. Hard to believe I wasn’t even in junior high when it was released! And right through high school if I had a day off chances were it was this movie I was watching (or Back to the Future).  As you know I like to discuss five things I “hate” in good movies. Except this is so well written, so well directed, so well edited and so well cast that it’s very hard to find legitimate problems. So forgive me if I resort to nitpicking for this article. Here are five things I “hated”. And you will not see one word about Ferris being a “sociopath” or any of that nonsense that has popped up over the years. Remember just enjoying a movie for what it was? 

A Look at Memorable TV Production Logos

A long long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I did an article on production companies. I was always fascinated by the companies that gave us the wonderful shows we grew up with. I also talked about the end credits were a bigger deal in my day, we’d actually watch them and for many shows it wasn’t complete until we saw that production logo at the end. Such as Miller/Boyett Productions which gave us those wonderful TGIF shows everyone still talks about. 

or how about the bright/kaufman/crane title card at the end of every episode of Friends?

Most of the time it was nothing fancy, a title card you hardly notice let alone care about (like the Carsey-Werner shows or the Witt-Thomas-Harris shows including  Golden Girls).  But occasionally a company would give us something special. They’d do a quick second clip of something so creative or memorable that it would become iconic all on its own. 

For example, if anyone saw a Stephen J Cannell production no way you don’t remember this:

Underrated Trek:Twilight (ENT)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. As I continue to discuss my absolute favorite, I've watched them a million times, episodes it was hard to find one for Enterprise. I have a real love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with this show. But there is a season 3 episode I loved and am surprised I haven't mentioned it by now.

This was in the middle of the Season 3 Xindi arc and I tried; I really tried to care about it. But I just didn’t. It’s funny this episode has things in common with my other three favorites. There’s a framing device, an altered time line, and the captain suffering an odd mental state.