Pop links: Wonder Woman's wacky creator, join the Cavern Club, Espenson to pen Oz comic, more

Sure, we knew Wonder Woman's creator, William Moulton Marston, was a colorful character, what with being a renowned psychologist, inventor of the lie detector and a guy with a penchant for bondage who lived with two women. But did you realize that, in his copious spare time, he also wrote lurid novels about the Roman Empire? The Beat investigates.

-----

A stash of membership medallions to Liverpool's famed Cavern Club (y'know, where the Beatles used to play) was unearthed by the club's former owner while clearing out his shed. How come I never find anything cool when cleaning out my shed? I just find a bunch of useless crap. Anyway, as you might expect, he's selling them.

The medallions were brought-in as a replacement to membership cards used by the club during its heyday in the 1960's, when it played host to hundreds of musical stars, including legends such as The Beatles, The Who, The Searchers, Gerry & The Pacemakers and Cilla Black.

After a short while the membership cards were re-introduced and the medallions vanished into storage.



----

Meanwhile, Mary Hopkin--former artist on the Beatles' Apple Records label--says she's finally doing something with a pile of old tapes in her attic.

“There were about 30 hefty two-inch tapes weighing heavily on my mind, and also on my bedroom ceiling.

“They had been gathering dust in my loft for many years and one morning I woke up to an ominous creaking sound as a huge crack appeared in the ceiling.

“So, with some prodding from my daughter, Jessica, we decided to release them from their dusty boxes before the ceiling fell in.”

Hopkin--who hit #1 back in 1968 with the Paul McCartney-produced "Those Were the Days"--says some of the recordings appear on a new archival album, Recollections, which is coming out soon.

-----

Ooh cool! One of my fave Buffy scripters Jane Espenson is doing a five-issue series for Dark Horse Comic featuring everyone's favorite werewolf, Oz.

Oz, played by Seth Green in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show, was the subject of an earlier Dark Horse series of comics. Dark Horse has been publishing a series of Buffy comics, overseen by series creator Joss Whedon, that constitute a "season eight" continuation of the TV show's overall story arc.

As for the arc's storyline? "Oh, that is top secret, my friend, but it's super cool," Espenson said, adding: "You'll see a wolf or two. There might be a wolf."