Pop focus: Captain Marvelmania

A selection of memorabilia from the days when Captain Marvel was America's top superhero, his comics outselling even those of Superman and Batman.























Joe Kubert's Tex: The Lonesome Rider coming soon in English

Available for pre-order now from Amazon, Dark Horse is publishing an English edition of the Joe Kubert-illustrated Western graphic novel "Tex: The Lonesome Rider," originally published in Italian.

Details:

American icon Joe Kubert and Italian writer Claudio Nizzi collaborated on the exhilarating western Tex: The Lonesome Rider at the turn of the century--and this standalone graphic novel is now available to a wider English-language audience! Tex hunts down four ruthless killers who massacred a peaceful farming family, using his detective skills, ranger's experience, and brute force to track down his targets! However, each killer is cunning and skilled in his own right! This is the first U.S. edition of a graphic novel that was drawn by Kubert in the early 2000s!



Video find: Short doc on artist Margaret Keane - inspiration for "Big Eyes"

Margaret Keane is the artist behind the cool/creepy "big eye" art that inspired Tim Burton's new film on the same name. Here's a short profile on Keane from KQED public TV.


Pop artifact: vintage Batman walkie-talkie




Pop culture roundup: Doc Savage; Starlog magazine; Neal Adams; Western blog; Marvel calendar redux

The Golden Age celebrates the Doc Savage art of James Bama.


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Every issue of the late, lamented Starlog magazine is now available via the Internet Archive.


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Rip Jagger's Dojo examines the comic book cover art of Neal Adams.


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Our pardner Booksteve has a new blog for the New Year. Check out Riding the Pop Culture Range for his tribute to Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and lesser-known matinee cowboys.

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Do you still have your copy of the 1981 Marvel Comics calendar? It works for 2015, too.



King-Size Kirby book from Marvel up for pre-order

A mammoth tribute to Jack Kirby is out from Marvel in July. The hardcover, slip-case edition is up for pre-order now from Amazon.

Details:
Hail to the King! Celebrate Jack "King" Kirby's incredible contribution to Marvel's history in this decades-spanning, Adamantium-sized collection! Westerns, romance, war, horror, sci-fi, humor and super heroes, Jack Kirby was a master of it all! From Captain America socking Hitler to Devil Dinosaur and the Eternals' far-out adventures, savor Kirby's work on his legendary creations including the Hulk, Thor, Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Inhumans!

COLLECTING: Red Raven Comics 1; Marvel Mystery Comics 13; Captain America Comics 1, 7; Yellow Claw 4; Rawhide Kid (1955) 17; Amazing Adventures (1961) 1; Strange Tales (1951) 89, 94, 114; Teen-Age Romance 84; Fantastic Four (1961) 1, 48-51, 57-60, Annual 5; Incredible Hulk (1962) 3; Two-Gun Kid 60; Love Romances 103; Amazing Spider-Man (1963) 8; Sgt . Fury 6, 13; Avengers (1963) 4; Tales of Suspense 59; X-Men (1963) 9; Thor 134-136, 154-157; Not Brand Echh 1; Amazing Adventures (1970) 1-2; Marvel Treasury Special: Captain America's Bicentennial Battles; Captain America (1968) 200; Eternals (1976) 7; Devil Dinosaur 1; What If? (1977) 11

816 pages

Tarzan Original Daily Strips coming soon from IDW

Up for pre-order at Amazon now, IDW Publishing will release a first volume collecting the Tarzan daily comic strips in April.

Details:
Three amazing firsts hit the newspaper strip pages in January 1929: the introduction of Buck Rogers as a Sunday, the debut of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan as a daily strip, and the first newspaper strip art by Hal Foster. It was Foster who illustrated all 60 episodes of ERB's seminal Tarzan of the Apes. And now LOAC Essentials brings you all of Foster's first comics work, reproduced from ERB's syndicate proofs. In addition, this book includes The Return of Tarzan, Beasts of Tarzan, and Son of Tarzan, each drawn by Rex Maxon. All together the first 300 daily Tarzan comics ever produced, all together in a single, affordable package!


Beatles forgo 1964 "copyright dump"

A cross post with The Glass Onion Beatles Journal:

Last year in December, the Beatles very quietly released nearly 60 previously unreleased recording via iTunes as the "Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963," as part of a copyright protection scheme.

In Europe, recordings become popular domain 50 years after their creation unless officially released by copyright owners. By "publishing" the 1963 recordings, the Beatles were establishing their continued ownership of the copyrights. Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys and Motown also issued "copyright dump" recordings in 1963. They also followed suit last month, with Dylan issuing songs on a vinyl collection limited to 1,000 copies in Europe, and Motown and the Beach Boys releasing recordings online.

The Beach Boys actually released two such items: A collection of various live and studio outtakes called Keep an Eye on Summer, complete with downloadable liner notes, and a live concert recording from Sacramento.

But the Beatles? Nada. Fan keeping a steady eye on iTunes through New Year's Eve for a surprise release were disappointed.

I've seen no official comment from Apple regarding its reasoning for not putting out a collection this year. It may be that the Beatles' lawyers have a different legal strategy for protecting these recordings. But, unless there is a change, the European copyright law seems fairly clear: If copyrights aren't protected by artists, anyone can release them.

This happened last year when the Rock Melon label issued a compilation called Works in Progress, featuring songs the Beatles neglected to include in their "official" release of 1963 works.

In the absence of a 1964 collection issued by the Beatles themselves, we're sure to see many such labels compile their own albums of studio outtakes and live concerts from 1964. There are dozens of performances to choose from that have already surfaced on bootlegs throughout the years.

The only question is, will the Beatles fight to stop any of theses releases and, if so, on what grounds?

Video find: The Dave Brubeck Quartet performs "Blue Rondo ala Turk"


Fab Friday: Beatles vital statistics





Superman: The Atomic Sundays Vol. 1 - coming soon

IDW's first volume of post World War II Superman Sunday strips is due out in June and available for pre-order now from Amazon.

Details:
These never-before-reprinted 1950's Sundays are a special treat for Superman fans and comics historians worldwide. This first book of the Atomic Age Sundays features more than 175 full-color strips, from October 23, 1949 through March 15, 1953. In these tales, the impish Mr. Mxyztplk has returned to drive Superman crazy and the Man of Steel returns to Smallville for "Superboy Week" celebrations and ends up solving a case he never had a chance to as Superboy! The Man of Steel also travels back in time and gets embroiled in political intrigue in the court of King Arthur, and then fights off an alien invasion of Earth!

Pop artifact: Monkees puppet


Wonder Woman by George Perez Omnibus - coming soon

Due out in August, this is available for pre-order on Amazon now.

Details:

One of the most popular artists working in comics over the last 30 years, George Pérez's resume contains a who's-who of the most popular characters in comics. From his co-creation, with Marv Wolfman, of THE NEW TEEN TITANS in the 80s and his work on CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS and WONDER WOMAN to his mega-successful JLA/AVENGERS, George's work has thrilled comics fans for over 3 decades.

This omnibus collects the first two years of George Perez's revolutionary run on WONDER WOMAN in premium format, containing WONDER WOMAN #1-24 and WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #1.

Happy New Year 2015!

Welcome back to another year at Pop Culture Safari!

Stay tuned for the usual mix of news, reviews, nostalgia and more, including our Sunday "Pop Focus" features and cool stuff every day of the week.