Will Pfeifer's Blog, page 53

The State of Comic Books, circa July 1967

If, while awaiting my imminent arrival, my dad had wandered over to the nearest newsstand, here's what he might have seen...









... because those are some of the comic books that were on sale during July 1967, the month I made my debut on this planet. Not a bad selection, eh? Thunder Agents, Doom Patrol, Not Brand Ecch, Jerry Lewis ... and WORLD OF 1,000 OLSENS. You're not going to see that sort of variety (or, for that matter, sheer wackiness) on the shelves today.

If you'd like to know what comic books were being sold when you were born (or, actually, any other month since 1935), go to this page of Mike's Amazing World of DC and select the correct month and year. Make sure, incidentally, to pick the month they were on sale. The comics with the same cover date as your birth month were probably on sale a couple of months before.

And thanks to Tom Spurgeon's great The Comics Reporter site for hipping me to this little nostalgia machine. Thanks, Tom!

Advance Team Tuesday: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence

With all that talk last week of pizza delivery and the Cleveland skyline and bad science fiction movies, you might be saying to yourself "Sure, this Advance Team graphic novel sounds great, and you can bet I'll be buying multiple copies when it arrives in stores next spring, but is there any violence within its pages?"

To that I say, didn't you see this post? And furthermore, there's this...

And, to once again prove that artist German Torres is indeed the man, here's my crude thumbnail rendition of the same page. Aren't you glad I'm only writing the book?

A tale of two 1970s trailers from the future

I never realized this before, but after watching the relatively obscure trailer for "A Boy and his Dog" (1975, directed by L.Q. Jones)...



... I was for some reason reminded of this relatively well-known trailer for "A Clockwork Orange" (1971, directed by Stanley Kubrick)...



Now, obviously the trailer for "A Clockwork Orange" trailer is much better, but I have to admire the sheer balls of whoever edited that trailer for "A Boy and His Dog" to so blatantly rip off the previous work. It is a great little movie, though, and I hope this act of artistic homage brought it some small bit of much-deserved attention.

By the way, Blood, the dog in the title (and the smartest, most admirable character in the entire movie) was played by the same dog who played Tiger on "The Brady Bunch." And he was voiced by Tim Mcintire, who delivered a unforgettable performance as legendary DJ Alan Freed in the (sadly not on DVD) rock 'n' roll movie, "American Hot Wax."

Poly Styrene, RIP

As I said way back in the second-ever post on this blog, the title "X-Ray Spex" has nothing to do with the band of the same name, despite the fact that early British punk is one of my favorite types of music.

Having said that, it feels wrong somehow not to acknowledge the passing of Poly Styrene (aka Marianne Elliott-Said), the lead singer of X-Ray Spex and a true punk icon. She died Monday at the age of 53 after battling cancer of the breast and spine.

So here, in tribute, is a video of Poly and her band singing their biggest hit, "Oh Bondage Up Yours!," which still rocks pretty hard, even after all these years.

Advance Team Tuesday: Influences

We'll get back to printing more of German Torres' sweet, sweet art for "The Advance Team" again, I promise, but for this week's installment of the shameless self-promotion of the upcoming graphic novel, I thought I'd be extra shameless and list a few of my own influences in writing it. In no particular order...


Growing up (sort of) near Cleveland: I spent my formative years in Niles, Ohio, which is actually much closer to Youngstown than Cleveland, but I made plenty of trips there, both as a kid and as an adult, and always thought it was a fascinating place. Plus, as a kid, arguably my favorite TV show, "Houlihan and Big Chuck" (which showed monster movies every Friday), hailed from the shores of Lake Erie and made the most of its home city. And, as a bonus, Cleveland does have a surprisingly nice skyline (see above). That's the main reason I set (most of) the story there.


Having two roommates deliver pizza in college: I never delivered the stuff myself, but I went along on some rides and hung out at the local Dominos waiting for them to end their shifts. That's why I made the hero of "The Advance Team" a member of this proud profession. If there's a group of workers who need to be seen as heroes, it's the brave folks who bring you that pie in 30 minutes or less. If nothing else, I hope this graphic novels encourages everyone to be a bit less stingy with their tips. (Incidentally, that's not one of my roommates in the above photo. It's just some generic Internet guy.)


Movies where, somehow, against all odds and logic, the scrappy U.S. military manages to defeat an alien army centuries more advanced than they are: Trust me. That does not happen in this book. I promise.

Advance Team Tuesday: A quiet moment

Despite all the violence in last week's advance peek at "The Advance Team" graphic novel (written by yours truly and drawn by German Torres) isn't all punches and explosions.

Here, for example, is a nice peaceful moment from midway in the book featuring Vic, our hero Zack's co-worker at Pizza Xpress (and dare I say, possibly romantic interest?)...
Tranquil, eh? I feel, by the way, I should point out that this peaceful little interlude is both preceded and followed by moments of over-the-top violence. But you could probably guess that, couldn't you?

Has Joey Ramone really been gone ten years?

I can hardly believe it myself, but the lead singer of the greatest group of all time (yes, I said it) died a decade ago of lymphoma in (where else?) New York City. I came to the Ramones relatively late in the game, being aware of their presence (mostly thanks to their movie, "Rock 'N' Roll High School") and listening to their music from a distance, like, say, when it was on the radio (which, believe you me, was not often). I didn't really fall in love with the band until 1988, when the double LP "Ramones Mania" arrived, but I'm happy to say that despite the decades that have passed (and the 75 percent of the original lineup that has passed away), that love has only grown stronger over the years. So, in tribute to Joey -- along with Johnny and Dee Dee, and heck, Tommy and everyone else who has adopted the Ramone surname over the years, here's a clip of Joey's solo version of a Louis Armstrong classic.

Personally, I think Joey's version beats Satchmo's hands down, and I'm not joking. There's something about Joey's voice -- which Phil Spector, who would know, called one of the greatest in pop music -- that fits the emotion of the song perfectly. No one sang lines like "... they're really sayin'/I love you" like the skinny guy from Queens. Rest in peace, Jeff. You earned it.

'What's wrong with Anita Ekberg? At least she's ... you know...'

I was listening to Kevin Pollak's interview with the great Dave Thomas today, and it reminded me of (a) the brilliance of "SCTV" and (b) the brilliance of Thomas' Bob Hope impersonation. So, in the spirit of reminding the rest of you, here's the two-part "Play it Again, Bob" sketch featuring Thomas as Hope and Rick Moranis as Woody Allen (and, in part 2, Joe Flaherty as Bing Crosby). This thing works on so many levels it's still amazing three decades later...