My Tribute:My Favorite Comics From Len Wein

On September 10th Len Wein passed away. He was a big name in both DC and Marvel comics. Not only did he co-create Swamp Thing, but he also co-created Wolverine (and several other X-Men) and The Human Target. He’s written pretty much every character I ever liked at once time or another. I decided this was a good time to run down some of my favorite stories of his over the years. When I did my article on favorite comic book writers a couple years ago his name was oddly missing. Let’s rectify that.









Now as per usual this article will be pro DC but I can’t ignore the work Wein did at Marvel working on almost ever major title, reviving the X-Men, and his story “Between Hammer and Anvil” from The Incredible Hulk #182 was later cited in Tony Isabella’s book 1,000 Comics You Must Read.






Batman #307

Wein had a fantastic run on Batman, as you’ll see there are a few of those in here. I wanted to highlight this issue because it features the first appearance of another of his creations. Lucius Fox, a side character who was kind of unknown until being played by Morgan Freeman in Batman Begins. He also wrote in Detective Comics which introduced another creation of Len Wein,  the third Clayface.

Top 12 Favorite “Friends” Celebrity Guests

The other day I talked about how many celebrities appeared on Will & Grace, I kind of glanced over the fact Friends had their fare share. Truth is, they had a little more than that! While Friends never hit the crazy levels of Will & Grace’s celebrity appearances there were more than enough so I could do a list for that show also.

I wanted to limit this to ten to be fair to the other list, but since I am a bigger fan of this show (we could father from my episode guide about it) and besides Friends has two extra years I had to expand it a bit. Also, like last time one time appearance only. Which means that Aisha Tyler, Elle MacPherson, Elliot Gould, Paul Rudd, Morgan Fairchild, Bruce Willis, Paget Brewster and of course Tom Selleck dont count. Also unlike last time there are plenty of clips for these.

So here are my ten, well 12..sort of…favorite celebrity appearances on “Friends!”


#12.Soleil Moon Fry (The One with the Girl who Hits Joey, Season 5)

The funny thing is the reason I like this has nothing to do with the clearly trying to hard Moon Fry, but the scene with Rachel where Rachel kicks her in the shin. Season 5 was lean on the celebrity appearances, making this one of the few of the whole year. We did also get Michael Rapaport as Phoebe’s boyfriend for a few episodes.

Top 10 Favorite “Will & Grace” Celebrity Guests

 

So with the classic 90’s show Will & Grace coming back, I thought it would be fun to look at the original series. And yes I know I am not the first to discuss this, but this show was a true magnet for celebrity guest stars!. Celebrities appearing on sitcoms has always been usual, Cosby Show had more than enough. Friends had plenty. Even Seinfeld did some stunt casting once in awhile. But for some reason Will & Grace went above and beyond with their guest stars. Not only did they some real big time celebrities, they got a TON of them!

Honestly I hadn’t realized just how many celebrities appeared till I looked at a list online. What was it about this show? Eric McCormack recently commented that it did get kind of ridiculous, the episodes became about the celebrities guests (two or three per episode) and had gotten away from what it was supposed to be. Anyway here are my ten favorites from the eight years this show was on. Only rule, these had to be one time guest appearances not recurring roles so greats like Eileen Brennan, Gene Wilder, Woody Harrelson, Gregory Hines, Harry Connick Jr, Minnie Driver, Blythe Danner, and Alec Baldwin are disqualified. That could be its own list and yes I am also disqualifying the fantastic Debbie Reynolds who played Grace’s mom.



To be clear, I am judging these by how much I like the celebrity appearance regardless of whether the episode they appeared in was any good. I also decided to ad video clips though some of them are terrible quality, and some have no videos at all sadly so I replaced them with others.





#10..Neil Patrick Harris (Girls, Interrupted, Season 2)

I think this was before he came out, but I could be wrong on that one, and Neil Patrick Harris plays a man who is trying to “cure” gay people by showing them the way is through heterosexuality. Yeah, Jack and Karen put an end to that. It’s a good role for Harris who was, at the time, trying to discover an identity for himself beyond Doogie Howser. Of course How I Met Your Mother would do that soon after.

Ten Kids Magazines I Grew Up With

Ah, nostalgia. I once talked about how much I loved TV Guide, but that wasn’t the only magazine I regularly enjoyed as a kid. Do they still have these in the day of iPad’s and kindel’s? It’s to bad if they don’t because they were a lot of fun. I am of course talking about magazines based on the popular TV, movies, and cartoons that were on. These weren’t usually that remarkable, they would have puzzles and games with the occasional story or comic regarding the product they were advertising for. Because let’s be honest, that’s what these were. Advertisements.

My research suggests that yes these still exist. Some that were around in my day are still around now, but that’s because they were so general they could appeal to kids over the years. For instance, we all know Highlights. If you went do a doctor’s office as a kid in the 80’s, you saw this magazine. It was basically a straight up activity magazine, just without the popular characters. But while it had nothing more substantive than that, it’s been around for ages and is still going strong with phone apps. Ranger Rick, a nature magazine, started in 1967 and is still around. Remember how Doug Walker has said he hates the cartoon Doug because he was made fun of due to the same name? Yeah let’s just say I have similar feelings for this magazine.






Now these weren’t teen magazines. They were geared for kids. I never read teen magazines since I was never a teenage girl. There were tons of them from Teen Beat to Teen People to Seventeen but that’s another topic. And I added the pic but Nintendo Power is not listed here. Sorry, never read it.

Here are the magazines I remember growing up with :




Sesame Street

This one has been around for ages and has left and come back a few times. And it’s harmless thought not very memorable. I remember the Little Golden Books better than these. These are meant for very little kids.

Five Movies That Gave Me Mood Whiplash

Ever go to a movie and you think it’s going to be a certain type, and then somewhere in the middle of the film takes a sharp turn into something else? This is something which is more common than I realized, it happens a lot! For instance awhile back I talked about “Good Morning,Vietnam” before as being like that. Uh yeah, a comedy romp it is not! Another one I’ve talked before about is the Adam Sandler film “Click!”. It begins as a typical Sander comedy with low brow humor and all. Then suddenly it takes a left turn into a dark and somber drama. The tone shift in this is just unreal!

From what I can see there a lot of these but here are five examples that I saw. And much like with Click! the tonal shift was so jarring it almost gave me whiplash!





Baby Boom

Show of hands, who saw this horrible movie in the 80’s? I did sad to day. I love Diane Keaton, and she was fine in this, but the movie is just awful. The worst thing is how it changes course half way thru. This is a story about an uptight business woman who suddenly has to care for a baby. And hi jinks ensues. The usual cliche’s, she doesn’t like the baby but she grows attached yada yadda yadda. Problem is about half way through, that whole premise gets abandoned and it becomes about her quitting her job and retiring to the country where she makes her own baby food. Huh? When I saw this I was confused as hell!


By the was another baby movie, “Three Men and a Baby”, has a similar problem. It went back and forth between a plot about three bachelors caring for a baby to another plot about cocaine dealers. Really!

Underrated Trek: Bliss (VOY)

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. I’ve done a few of these now for Voyager but have yet to really talk about Seven of Nine. I did a couple she was in but was hardly featured. She shook up the show and, in my opinion, made it interesting. Here’s an example with an episode that she rocks in. This is :

 

Bill Prady of “Dharma and Greg” and “Big Bang  Theory submitted this one. So can Seven carry an entire episode mostly by herself?  Is it good? Let’s take a look :

 

Five Effects from Star Trek-TNG That Seem Silly Today

A few months ago I talked about how some of the props from the original Trek series seem kind of lame today. As far as The Next Generation, they served a little better. Oh sure some of the stuff is dated but not laughably so. The effects on the other hand, not so much. Oh sure some episodes the effect worked fine, more than fine,  but other effects either due to financial concerns or just lacking time and resources, were weak and seem silly today.



For instance, the awful episode “Manhunt” featured an alien race called the Antedian’s who, well, look like this….







Yeah, pretty silly. Or how about this goofy monster from "The Dauphin". The only thing worst than the hideous design is the atrocious morphing effect that preceded it.

But those are just two examples. Man Season 2 was rough. Anyway here are five of the most notable horrible effects in TNG whether it be bad makeup or awful CGI.





Skin of Evil

I almost feel bad ripping into this one again, but what the hell were the creators thinking with the Armus? A oil slick that comes to life? I suppose there was potential with the idea but not only is the moment of the slick awful animation, but when he forms into a humanoid form it just looks stupid. This was even lame for the time the episode was made!