Geek Tee Friday - Batman/Cthulhu

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Here is a crossover shirt featuring two of my favourite things, Batman, the dark knight of justice, the vigilante guardian of Gotham City in the DC Comics Universe and Cthulhu, dread Cthulhu, he who darkens the sun, the ancient, the anti-god, lord of the unholy ones!!! I was quoting some song lyrics there about Cthulhu by Ripping Corpse but they do sum him (it) up quite nicely.

Cthulhu is I suppose the chief diety of the pantheon of Great Old Ones, an ancient race of powerful alien dieties who ruled the Earth when it was still young before entering into death-like slumber. Deranged human & inhuman Cultists pray to Cthulhu, awaiting the time when "the stars are right" and he will arise again from his sunken underwater city R'lyeh. When cultists gather the chant "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" ("In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming") is invoked.

Cthulhu is described as looking like a mix of an octopus and a dragon and was created by American author H. P. Lovecraft, 1st appearing in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928.

Batman 1st appeared 11 years later, 1939 in Detective Comics #27. Created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. When young Bruce Wayne witnesses the murder of his parents he vows to fight crime and protect the innocent. He dedicates his life to training himself to the pinnacle of physical and intellectual ability and takes on the mantle of the bat, as "criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot. So my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible..."

The main connection I can think of between the works of Lovecraft and that of Batman is Arkham Asylum. In Lovecraft's literature Arkham is a town in Massachusetts where many of his stories are set. His story characters often end up in the town sanitarium as looking into the cosmic terrors of the Cthulhu mythos can be too much for the fragile human mind, realisation of our place within the cosmic pecking order can snap the psyches of men. Arkham was 1st mentioned in Lovecraft's short story "The Picture in the House" (1920) with the sanitarium appearing 1st in "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1933). In Batman Arkham Asylum is also a well known place, many of Batman's unhinged foes end up there. Arkham Asylum first appeared in Batman #258 (Oct. 1974), written by Dennis O'Neil with art by Irv Novick.

Batman has also had some more direct contact with the Cthulhu Mythos with "The Doom that Came to Gotham" a 3 part Elseworlds tale set in the 1920's that has Bruce Wayne and companions encounter with things that should not be. Written and drawn by Mike Mignola of Hellboy fame the books were released from late 2000 - early 2001.
HERE

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My birthday goodies

Another year older but at least I got some goodies to soften the blow!! 😃

New threads!!

Twilight Zone T-shirt

and Batman lounge pants!!

I've been doing some Twilight Zone themed shows with my heavy metal High Speed Hangover Podcast so this T-shirt was a must have for my geeky collection.

I also made sure to stay up to date with my superhero film collection, I got these two films and Infinity War is in the post too! I think I saw all of these at the cinema but it's nice to add them to my library.

Then for comics I got the next 3 books of the collected Saga series by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples, I got the 1st two for Christmas and really enjoyed them so I am looking forward to reading these. Check out my review of the 1st two volumes HERE.

Then for classic comics I got this great book of Hawk & Dove, I think this is the initial run of Hank & Don Hall the brothers who became Hawk & Dove that ran from September 1968 to June/July 1969. The characters were created by legend Steve Ditko and Steve Skeates and debuted in Showcase #75 in June 1968. I've just checked the book notes and it features all these books, the debut, the 6-parter mini-series and an appearance in Teen Titans #21. I've gotta say I was stoked to get this book, I read the 80's series, if memory serves me correctly there was a mini in '88 with art by Rob Liefeld (this was the name I couldn't remember from the video) and an on-going book from '89 by Karl & Barbara Kesel. Dove had died during Crisis on Infinite Earths and was replaced by Dawn Granger.

I also bought myself a few presents, I've hit on the plan to buy comics that are cover dated for the month/year that I was born, so all from September 1969. Here's the video I did of these books and check out the full blog too for more info.

I also got some non-geeky music, a couple of CDs one from my mate Vik Bub of his band Gore Shriek and the other of Corpus Mortale who I saw at a Death Metal all-dayer years ago where I was dressed up as Santa giving away presents to the punters!!

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Geek Tee Friday - Judge Dredd

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Gaze into the fist of Grey

This week's shirt features the baddest Law Man in fiction, Judge Dredd,  who has been "The Law" in British comic 2000AD since it's 2nd issue, way back in 1977 when 2000AD personified "the future" instead of being quite a while ago, as it is now!! He is the brainchild of writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, who I have to say is possibly my favourite artist ever. Although in the 1st appearance of Dredd in the comic it was in a story written by freelancer Peter Harris with re-writes by Pat Mills, and drawn by Mike McMahon.

Judge Death 1st appeared in Prog 149, (in 1980), he was a terrifying supernatural Judge from another dimension Deadworld where they decided that as all crime was commited by the living then life itself would be a crime. The city is guilty, the crime is life, the sentence is death!! He was eventually defeated; after his body was destroyed, his spirit inhabited the Psi-Judge Anderson and they captured her and Death's spirit in Boing®, a spray on plastic that turned people into human pinballs.

Later in Prog 224, (8 August 1981), in a story written by John Wagner/Alan Grant with art by Brian Bolland, some of Death's brother Dark Judges from his world, Fear, Fire & Mortis came to free him from his captivity and continue bringing their brand of justice to Mega City One's "lawless" populace. Fear has the ability to literally scare a person to death but in this classic panel by Brian Bolland it's illustrated just how tough Dredd is, whereas a normal human would collapse and die he punches straight through Fear's helmet.

I must admit to not having read much Dredd in my later years, 2000AD started losing it's appeal to me with some of it's stories and art not capturing my interest at all but Dredd is always cool. 

There have been 2 Dredd movies too but I only like to talk about one of them, the Karl Urban one from 2012 was really cool and I have high hopes for the proposed TV series and really wish that it has great success when/if we get to see it!

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Geek Tee Friday - Villains & Vigilantes

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For this week's Geek Tee I have dug out a really old shirt that I printed up myself as I doubt there was ever any official merchandise of this, at least not as far as I know! This is from a really great RPG that gave me hours of fun and entertainment back in the day called Villains & Vigilantes or V & V for short. The video tells everything really about my history/love for the game but here's a bit of history.

Designed by Jack Herman & Jeff Dee, the 1st edition was released by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1979 but I got it from the 2nd edition that was released in 1982. I think I was perhaps 17 when I got this game so about '86 I think. I was an avid reader of Marvel & DC comics and knew that both had RPGs out but I wanted to create my own characters not play as somebody else's. And just look at that cover!! How could I resist, that cover tells a story that just dragged me in.

The rules are a bit tricky initially but once you get a bit of practice in they are pretty simple really and character creation is again slow to begin with but once you get used to it I was rolling up characters in probably 10 minutes maximum. You do need a calculator though I will say that.

An updated version of the game has since been released, if you are interested in trying out the games, try either of these two links. 

www.drivethrurpg.com

Fantasy Games Unlimited

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The idea was to play as yourself so I created a NPC (Non-player character) of myself who was called Photon, he has light powers, strength and illusions and his origin was that the Alien Protector was engaged in an aerial battle with a super-villain (I forget which one?) and got fatally wounded, he crashed down on top of a bus shelter as I walked past and with his dying moments he reached down and grabbed my hand channeling his powers into me. (I realise now how derivative of Green Lantern's origin it is!) Later on in the campaign the persona of the Alien Protector started to try and take control of my psyche.

I had a ton of fun doing these games and will sign off with the names of some of the player characters I remember. My sister was The Elementalist, my little bro was Mindwing, my big bro was The Hermit (crab powers!), Raj was Transflame, Dave was The Crimson Knight, Martin was Sonic Speeder, Mosquito, The Crab (and a couple more I am sure but I forget!) and my cousin Amos was Beast Man, Protac, Titan (I think), and Gauntlet.

As an interesting snippet of information, Bill Willingham of Fables fame wrote a couple of early V&V campaign books, Death Duel with the Destroyers and The Island of Dr. Apocalypse.

Update: I just got a comment on my video by Jeff Dee the games co-creator. His YouTube channel shows game sessions of him playing the new version of V & V HERE

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Geek Tee Friday - Wayne Aerospace

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Here we go another Geek Tee Friday post with the 4th of the shirts I got from Loudshop which I did an opening video of HERE

This was probably the least exciting of the shirts I got for my mind, it doesn't scream "Superhero" to me and I'd imagine that anyone not versed on the Batman character might think it's a shirt from a real company!! Perhaps they'll think I'm in the employ of a leading scientific tech company and think I'm a super-science boffin!! So maybe it's cool for that. 

This shirt came with a Justice League movie label but I can't say I recall it from the movie at all!? (Check out my blog HERE if you wanna see my thoughts on the film) So I thought I'd do a blog about it, as you do! I actually found a real company called Wayne Corporation which later became Divco-Wayne and had some dabbling in aerospace tech for a time!! This is from Wikipedia,

From 1958 to 1959, the company owned Divco-Wayne Electronics. In a $1.5 million purchase of the Electronics Division of Gruen Watch Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, Divco-Wayne sought to enter the aerospace technology segment. After poor results, the Electronics Division was sold off.

For the purposes of Batman though we have to talk about Wayne Enterprises, Inc, also know as WayneCorp, that operates out of Gotham from it's headquarters of Wayne Tower. The company along with the charitable organisation the Wayne Foundation, also headed by Bruce "Batman" Wayne, is ran day-to-day by Lucius Fox, a very capable and trusted employee. I am unsure if in current canon Fox knows of Wayne's other hero self, I do recall that he does in Nolan's Batman movies, where he is played by Morgan Freeman. 

Originally founded as a merchant house back in the 18th century by brothers Judge Solomon Wayne and Joshua Simon Wayne, it soon flourished with the city of Gotham springing up around it. Alan Wayne, Bruce's great, great grandfather turned it into a corporate company in the 19th century, it was made into a green company too, trying to be aware and take steps to limit it's environmental impact. It's among the oldest companies in the DC Universe and has a vast array of interests, with branches for Security, Research, Foods, Shipping, Biotech, Electronics, Chemicals, Steel, Entertainment and Medical to name but a few.

Here is the entry for Wayne Aerospace stolen straight from Wikipedia for you to check out!!

Wayne Aerospace

Wayne Aerospace is a subsidiary of Wayne Technologies and remains one of the more highly successful divisions of Wayne Enterprises. It has its own airline called Wayne Airlines and an aviation division called Wayne Aviation. The aerospace division is a major military defense contractor within Gotham and the United States. W.A. currently owns 20% of Lockheed Martin's weapons division. The W.A. is mostly known for its extremely well structured, luxurious and exclusive corporate and private jets and airliners. Much like the Gulfstream, Wayne Enterprises tries to keep the Slipstream corporate jets out of the hands of celebrities and sells them mostly to large corporations. This in turn has made the Slipstream into a cult item among the rich because it is fashionable to have a plane as a status symbol of wealth. Wayne Aerospace's experimental aviation branch produces experimental and the research planes built for NASA. The military aviation branch designs and manufactures highly successful jet fighters and helicopters for the United States Air Forces. The most notable models of these are the W-4 Wraith fighter and the Kestrel attack helicopter. As the most prominent aerospace company in the region, Wayne Aerospace has a working partnership with Eagle Air Force Base near Gotham City. Wayne Aerospace is also responsible for maintaining the systems and the planes for the Archie Goodwin International Airport in Little Stockton, in Gotham. Wayne Aerospace maintains good natured competition with other aerospace corporations like Ferris Air and its nemesis, LexAir.

The division has generated millions of dollars for Wayne Enterprises. The company's government contracts and space exploration contracts with NASA have been very lucrative. Wayne Aerospace's most important mission is to provide the latest technology and information for the Batman.

I don't remember hearing about an Archie Goodwin Airport before but it's obviously named in honour of the late great writer, editor and artist. Check out his full bio HERE but short version he did horror comics for Warren, cut his superhero teeth as the 1st writer for Iron Man in 1968, co-created Luke Cage in 1972, did a lot of work on Star Wars titles for Marvel & Epic comics and finished his career doing a lot of great work on Batman over at DC. I found this cool interview he did which sadly turned out to be his last, check it out HERE

There is even a character homage to him in Batman Adventures with a villain called Mr Nice!

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Geek Tee Friday - The Hulk

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This Friday's geek tee is one of the Hulk taken from the Thor: Ragnarok movie from 2017. This is the 3rd of the 4 mystery shirts I got for £15 and did a bag opening in this BLOG here. Check it out.

I wasn't too impressed with this one at 1st it seems a bit muted colour wise and I am sure there are better Hulk shirts out there but hey ho it is what it is, I'm sure it will grow on me!

As a character the Hulk has been around since May 1962  when he was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. He 1st appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1, a book that only ran for 6 issues before the big Green/Grey one was moved to Tales to Astonish which was later renamed as The Incredible Hulk in April 1968. It ran under a few different names up till 2013 when it was replaced by The Indestructible Hulk as part of Marvel's Marvel NOW! relaunch.

I remember that Marvel UK had a Hulk comic too that I know I read some of as a kid but I would expect that my 1st encounter with the very angry one was when Lou Ferrigno played him in the TV show of the 70's. It was pretty big in it's day this show I seem to recall, with Bill Bixby playing the role of the mild mannered scientist David (not Bruce??!!) Banner. The show ran for 5 seasons, (82 episodes) on CBS in America from 1978 - 1982 apparently. Wow, I didn't realise it was as many as that, I wonder if we got to see them all in the UK. 

It was a cool show, he was always on the move from town to town, working on cures for his Hulk problem and he'd end up befriending and helping someone with the big green one's aid and have to move on again at the end of the show. The poignant music would play out as he trudged off, (normally in the rain I seem to recall), to a new town and new adventures. 

They also made 3 films the 1st of which, The Incredible Hulk Returns features him meeting up, I am sure for the 1st time on screen, with the thunder god Thor himself. See they really are old friends from work!!

The Incredible Hulk Returns - 1988

He also met up with Daredevil in The Trial of The Incredible Hulk (1989) and in The Death of The Incredible Hulk (1990) he falls in love with an Eastern European spy (Black Widow surely!!)

I have quite a few issues of Hulk in my collection, I'd guess I must have collected him for 3/4 years but I need to go dig them out to confirm this. I know I have quite a few of the Peter David era of the big green goliath. He united his Banner/Hulk personas for a time during this period and we also learned that Bruce was abused by his father making Hulk ostensibly his childhood fury manifest. When Hulk refused to emerge during Avengers: Infinity Wars I theorized that his inner child bully Hulk was scared after the beat down that he received from Thanos. I think he might need a little lie-down on Doc Samson's sofa once again to get his head right. Also a lot of fun during David's run was when Hulk went grey again and had dominance over Banner, he became Mr Fixit for a time, a mob enforcer cracking heads to order for a crime boss. He was no where near as strong at this point, he had better intelligence and reasoning so he couldn't channel his boundless rage into strength.

I wonder if Hulk has featured in more Marvel movies than any other character. Does anyone have the figures at all? Maybe he is the character that has fronted the most movies. He has the 3 TV tie-in ones that I already mentioned and then he has had 2 others, Hulk (2003) with Eric Bana as Bruce Banner and The Incredible Hulk (2008) with Edward Norton in that role. He's also been in 3 Avengers movies, (I think) with Mark Ruffalo as Banner, and of course Thor Ragnarok where he has a tumultuous & fun battle with the titular hero. 

Fights between The Hulk and Thor have been plentiful over the years with many a debate being had between fans over who would win in such a battle. Hulk (in some versions), has brute strength that seemingly has no limits, increasing as his anger does, but Thor is a god, a skilled warrior with the might of Mjolnir and the power of thunder. I tried to find out when they 1st battled in the comics, the earliest encounter I could find was Journey Into Mystery #112 from January 1965. 

I am sure we will see him next in Infinity Wars Part 2 but I wonder if there are any plans to have him star in his own movies again at some point. I certainly hope so as I for one will NEVER tire of the Superhero genre, I don't remember a time when I haven't loved them and I can't picture there being one in the future either. Keep 'em coming I say.

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Geek Tee Friday - Gotham City Villains

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I love this shirt!! It's so cool, featuring some of the worst villains that have ever plagued Gotham's finest hero over the decades. I got this shirt as part of the random 4 T's for £15 deal that I did the other day, check out the blog about that for more info.

So let's go into depth about the quintet of villainous vileness my new shirt is adorned with.

1st of course is that clown Prince of crime, The Joker, I actually went into more depth about him last week as I got a Joker solo shirt too, check out last week's blog for more info on him.

Then top-left is the only lady of this felonious fivesome, the lovely but deadly Poison Ivy. Pamela Lillian Isely loves plants more than people and they seem to love her too as she is able to get them to do her bidding! She has toxins in her blood giving her a kiss that is able to control the minds of men as well as kill them if she chooses. She commits crimes to fund her eco-terrorism and is somewhat fixated on Batman after he showed himself able to resist her toxic charms. 

In current continuity she gained her powers and perhaps her madness through the experimentations of Dr. Jason Woodrue who later became the Floronic Man. She is very good friends with Harley Quinn, perhaps the only human she likes and I am sure I read that they had moved on to being more than just friends but I am not up on current stories cos I don't have the funds anymore 😥

She appeared first in Batman #181 in June 1966!! (Happy 52nd birthday Pam, you're still looking good!) and was created by Robert Kanigher & Sheldon Moldoff.

In the 1997 movie Batman & Robin she was played by Uma Thurman and has been played by Maggie Geha and Peyton List in the tv show Gotham.

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He's not on the cover of Detective Comics #58 but here's a great cover with him

The middle villain of the piece is that waddling, trick umbrella obsessed ornithologist Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, otherwise known as The Penguin. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane he 1st showed his big-nosed face in Detective Comics #58 in December 1941. Inspired from the then advertising mascot of Kool cigarettes – a penguin with a top hat and cane. Finger thought the image of high-society gentlemen in tuxedos was reminiscent of emperor penguins. He is rare amongst Batman's rogue's gallery in the fact that he is completely sane, although he is no less dangerous or ruthless because of this. 

He's been played superbly in film and television over the years as well by Burgess Meredith in the classic 60's TV show, by Danny DeVito in Batman Returns and Robin Lord Taylor in Gotham.

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Detective Comics #66

To the right of Penguin is the tragic Harvey Dent AKA Two-Face, he was once Batman's closest confidante in his early days as a crimefighter. As a District Attorney he would help Batman target the villains and then ensure that he could put them away for a long time. Then one fateful day in court Sal Maroni threw acid into Harvey's face, leading to the terrible disfigurement and helping to trigger the latent split personality within Dent's psyche. Obsessed with duality, the number two and chance he utilises a double-headed coin to make his decisions for him. One side is normal the other scarred like himself, he tosses the coin and if it comes up scarred then you're in trouble.

The character was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane and first appeared in Detective Comics #66 (Aug. 1942). He's featured in two Batman films played by Tommy Lee Jones in 1995's Batman Forever and Aaron Eckhart in The Dark Knight (2008)

In animation he's been voiced by Star Wars star Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian) and Star Trek star William (Captain James T. Kirk) Shatner!! Also fun fact if the Batman 60's series had got a 3rd season none other than Clint Eastwood was tipped to play the role!!

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Finally on this most epic of shirts we have that enigma Edward Nigma himself, aka The Riddler! This mastermind of crime delights in the employment of riddles and puzzles to confound the forces of law and order. Since an early age Ed loved puzzles and this led him to commit flamboyant crimes, leaving clues to match wits with the police, he sees Batman as a foe worthy of his intellect. The fact he is often caught makes me think that he's not as smart as he likes to think he is.

He was created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang and 1st took to crime in Detective Comics #140 in October 1948. He was very much a c-list villain in the comics though and pretty much forgotten, not featuring again until 1965. It was his portrayal by Frank Gorshin and John Astin in the 60's Batman series that boosted him to the major popularity he has today. He was also played by Jim Carrey in Batman Forever and Cory Michael Smith in the TV series Gotham.

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