Gene Phillips's Blog, page 3

NULL-CROSSOVERS #21

 I devoted one post here to an installment of the silly time-travel series from JUMBO COMICS, "Stuart Taylor," in which Taylor and company went back in time to encounter the characters of Washington Irving's purely fictional story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." But hey, maybe in Taylor's universe. Sleepy Hollow was real.

    In the case of the Taylor story from JUMBO #53, however, here we have a null-crossover, despite the writer's use of the legendary folkloric name of Bluebeard. At least the S...

RAR #94: JAMES HIGHWATER

 In the Grant Morrison ANIMAL MAN run, James Highwater is an anthropologist who helps the hero undergo a "vision quest," though he's not a standard "mystical Indian" in any way.

MONSTER MASHUPS #140

 THE FLAME FISH.

THE BATWING PELICAN.

THE LIGHTNING EEL.

THE SEA MONSTER and THE LOBSTER SHARK.

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 The cover to KRAZY KOMICS #2 is a null-crossover between Tessie the Typist and her boyfriend (who are in the comic) and Li'l Vinegar (who is not).

But Basil Wolverton contributes a real crossover between a goofy pilot-character, Flap FlipFlop, who'd been launched the previous year, and his much more popular hero Powerhouse Pepper. For good measure Wolverton tosses in another null-crossover, having Pilot Flap comment on reading a "Tessie the Typist" comic book.  

MONSTER MASHUPS #139

 The first monster mashup in Warren's CREEPY shows up as early as 1965, for issue #2's "Wardrobe of Monsters." Archeologists unearth five sarcophagi: one containing an Egyptian pharaoh and the other four containing "monster-suits" with a suspicious resemblance to creatures conceived long after the empire of Egypt.

One of the experts figures out that the "monster-suits" can be activated into living forms if one sends one's astral spirit into them, and wouldn't you know it, the unscrupulous cad fin...

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 Aside from a two-page fight-scene, there's not much to recommend about Dark Horse'd 1995 teamup of The Shadow and Doc Savage. It's not actively bad, just unambitious.

 

MONSTER MASHUPS #138

 First we have the SPEARBIRDS, who serve the (non-monstrous) "Wingmen."

 And THE LONG NECK MONSTER, whom Samson drafts to help him against the flying warriors.

MONSTER MASHUPS #137

 Here we have the SWORD-GRASS...

THE SKELETON BEAST...

THE VENUS MAN TRAPS (unleashed by a female villain, of course)

 THE STRANGLER VINE.

THE KNOCKOUT POD-PLANTS.

MONSTER MASHUPS #136

 

I was working on some notations and just wanted something uninvolving on the TV screen to supply background, so I put on the 1978-79 THE BAY CITY ROLLERS. I expected it to be a skit-show with musical numbers by the Rollers, which it was. I didn't know that it started as THE KROFFT SUPERSTAR HOUR, which was a retooled version of the 1976-78 KROFFT SUPERSHOW. I'd watched some segments of the first show but must have overlooked/avoided SUPERSTAR HOUR for whatever reasons. The original one-hour SUP...

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 

In youth I watched some of the Sid and Marty Krofft live-action shows but avoided most of the producers' "suitmation" episodes of the decade. So I was unaware as to how often those shows-- H.R. PUFNSTUF, SIGMUND AND THE SEA MONSTERS, and LIDSVILLE-- played host to crossovers between those franchises.  Probably the most notable one took place on LIDSVILLE. Though actress Billie Hayes had a regular role on that show, she also guested as her PUFNSTUF character Witchiepoo, wherein she had a romanti...