Intermission — April 23 — Bigfoot Problems

There are some Bigfoot problems that hit harder than others — and for certain legendary figures, male pattern baldness anxiety isn’t just about looks… it’s about legacy. Today’s comic imagines what happens when one very famous cryptid starts wondering if his myth might not survive a receding hairline.


What I’m Watching: Invincible, JJK, and the Great Animation Trade-Off

I’ve been watching Invincible with my sons, and I’ve got… thoughts.

First off: the story? Very, very good. Genuinely compelling stuff — even though the violence and gore is way past my personal comfort range. I'm not super comfortable with one character shooting another. The stuff that happens on a median-level episode of Invincible is a real challenge for me.

As someone who does NSFW comics, I'm constantly amazed at how perfectly acceptable Invincible is... yet an animated series based on Phil Foglio's XXXenophile would have people losing their ever-loving minds.

Further, it's a little disappointing to go from watching Jujutsu Kaisen (which we're also following at the moment) to watching Invincible.

JJK features jaw-dropping visuals and animation that constantly raises the bar episode after episode. It's phenomenal.

On the other side of the spectrum, Invincible clearly put all of its budget into getting celebrity voice talent. Some of them are very good.

I just wish a few of those Amazon dollars had been spent on the animation. Some of the scenes are pretty clearly PNGs that get enlarged to show an object moving through space, and it's a goddamned embarrassment.

But the story itself is very, very good.

TV Horror Hosts… for the geezer-impaired

In Friday’s post, I referenced a topic — TV Horror Hosts — that I was told some of you weren’t familiar with. I guess I’m getting old… For you non-geezer-types… back in the day, they used to have late-night TV shows that would present re-runs of old sci-fi or horror movies. This American pop-culture craze was spawned in 1957, when Screen Gems released a bunch of old Universal Studios horror movies to  television stations and encouraged the concept of having hosts for the presentations. As the concept evolved, these TV horror hosts would begin doing short sketches and bits as “bumpers” to the TV commercials. Pretty soon, people were tuning in to watch the hosts — not so much the movies these characters were hosting. And keep in mind, this was the Golden Age of TV. Pre cable. So every major media market had its own TV horror host. For example, in Cleveland, it was the cult-favorite Ghoulardi… … and there was Philly’s own Roland, who morphed into Zacherle. (He took his show to a national audience as Zacherley at WABC-TV in New York)… The very first TV horror host was Vampira. You remember her from her role in the Ed Wood classic, Plan 9 from Outer Space. …and her spiritual successor, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark… For The Munsters star, “Grampa” Al Lewis, it was a chance to revive (resurrect?) his career… And who could forget the brilliant send-up of TV horror hosts by Joe Flaherty as SCTV’s Count Floyd. “Ooooh! That’s scarey!” Me? I was a faithful fan of Commander USA’s Groovy Movies in the 1980s. He is one of my all-time favorite TV Horror hosts. In fact, the starburst design on Commander Heroic’s costume — heck, the name itself — is a direct homage to the good Commander. A few of the classic horror hosts have tried to reproduce their early success by self-broadcasting on the Web. (Sound familiar webcomics fans?) I’m not sure how successful they’ve been, but I do know that pop culture’s cyclical nature promises a return… someday… somehow. So in true 1950s sci-fi fashion, I’ll just wrap this up like so: THE END . . . ?