This blog should be sub-titled: a journal of my life in geek.
I get my geek on with things about which I am geeky: comic books, Baseball, Ultimate, science fiction, my favorite bands, books I have read and loved, and Jungian psychology to name some of the most frequently traversed subjects.
I began this project simply as a way to count my T-shirts. I own a lot of T-shirts. But how many do I have? Do I have 365? We shall find out.
When I started this blog, I thought about how each T-shirt means something to me. I bought it for a reason, after all. I set myself the task to post an entry about a new T-shirt every day as a way to simply write something every day, a warm up for writing fiction, which is my passion. Writing is like exercise. Warm ups are good for exercise. But after completing a month of blogging about T-shirts, I have learned that this blog serves as a journal; it documents my life in geek, sort of a tour of my interests in pop culture. The blog serves as a tool for self-inventory, for assessment and analysis of self and the origins of self, for stepping through the process of individuation in catalogues, lists, and ranks.
The blog also made me aware that I have some serious gaps in my T-shirt ownership, and I am in the process of collecting some new T-shirts for several of the great popular culture icons that I truly love. Stay tuned.
I was also a bit surprised that people checked out my blog and continue to check it, read it, and even comment on it. I am very appreciative of this readership. Please feel free to share your thoughts in my comments section. I will respond.
Also, please note that I have moved the original introductory text to the side bar. And now, I present to you the most recent entry of 365 T-shirts: a journal of my life in geek. Thank you for reading.
(Second Update - 1310.24. First Update - 1306.05 Originally Posted - 1304.25.)
Attention readers! Tower must be a serious grading robot for the next few days and so the blog's entries will be brief. Final grades for my most time consuming school are due Thursday morning, and I have several obstructions to working on them in the week, one of which is KUDL tonight.
As promised each Monday will feature a different KUDL--or at least an ultimate--shirt. Here's the 2013 shirt (in the light blue and pink). I plan to feature this shirt again, so I will not expound too much. But I will say that 2013 may be the best year of KUDL yet and that my team is simply AWESOME. We are known as Funktion Junktion, which I think is a brilliant team name.
Here's a photo that Bruce "Fris" Johnson made happen on June 17th, 2013 after our nightly KUDL games. It's meant to be a "six generations of Ultimate at Kalamazoo College" photo with the youngest and recent K students on the left and moving up the scale to feature the oldest alumni on the far right.
From Left to Right: Meredith Edwards, Morgan Mariama Mahdavi, Woody Tauke, Adam Smith, Jacob Meyers, Stu Gulliver, me (Chris Tower), and Bruce "Fris" Johnson
Look at those lovely people. There's some pride in both Ultimate and Kalamazoo College!
The Batman television series that ran from 1966-1968 and then in syndication for many years forged the cornerstone of my personality, my sense of humor, and my ideas about popular culture.
I owned many of the toys (seen in today's blog entry). I dressed as Batman not only for Halloween but for playtime in a cape my mother made for me.
Even better, my house had bat poles.
When my father designed our West Gull Lake Drive house, he added a 43-foot sliding pole (37 feet from the floor of the fourth floor to the basement floor). The house was finished in 1979 and where I lived (except for my years in college) until 2003, and then again with my wife and kids from 2009 to 2011. I have added pictures here. For 26 years of my life, I could say "to the Bat Poles, Robin" and actually take the slide. I miss that house. I miss the bat pole. My father used the Tower room as his office for most of the years we lived there, though originally (for the first year or three) it was a TV room. From 2009-2011, I made my office on the fourth floor or the "Tower" room. When the washer or dryer buzzed or my wife came home, I could skip the stairs and shoot down the bat pole. Such, a great life.
To examine the importance of the Batman TV show I present the top ten reasons that I loved the show. These may work for you, too, if like me, you grew up with this show.
TOP TEN REASONS TO LOVE THE BATMAN TV SHOW (circa 1966)
BATMAN THEME SONG
"HOLY EXPLETIVE, BATMAN!"
CATWOMAN
EVERYTHING NAMED BAT - BAT GADGETS - THE BAT POLES
THE SECRET ENTRANCES & OTHER COOL STUFF
BAT GIRL
THE VILLAINS (& cliffhangers)
SCALING THE BUILDINGS
THE TOYS - MERCHANDISING
BATMAN AND ROBIN (CAPES ARE COOL)
NO RANKINGS: I did not rank this list. I cannot put these things in an order. What would really be number one? Maybe if you are a faithful reader and are reading this, you can give me your thoughts on appropriate rankings.
TOP TEN REASONS TO LOVE THE BATMAN TV SHOW (circa 1966)
EXPOSITIONS AND RHETORIC
1. BATMAN THEME SONG
Written by Neal Hefti, the song captured the Zeitgeist of the times with its guitar hook bringing together soy film scores (such as James Bond films) and surf music. I remember frugging out hard to the song every time the show came on the air. I would flail about the room like a spazz. Come on, I was only four years old when this show debuted. But between its original run and syndication, and then later covers by bands such as the Who and the Jam, I have always had this song in my life.
It is definitely one of the best theme songs in TV history/
Of course, someone has collected all of Robin's sayings at an Internet site. Such resources. Back in "the day," we would have to do this ourselves. I have partial lists of these and McCoy's "I'm a doctor not a..." in my journals.
"Holy Bargain Basements, Batman!" is one of the best.
Okay, I am just going to write this one statement and leave it alone without further embellishment.
Julie Newmar's Catwoman had a profound effect on my views about sexuality, femininity, and my attractions to women.
This video is an interesting tribute. Give it a look. Some fans wrote their own song, which seems dedicated to Newmar's Catwoman. Though other actresses played Catwoman in the original TV Series and the movie, and those these actresses (Lee Meriwether and Eartha Kitt), it is really no contest. Julie Newmar was the best.
Something Wild - Julie Newmar as Catwoman
Since the TV show, two actresses (Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway) have played Catwoman in the movies, and both have done a very good job. But I promised not to elaborate. I will let the pictures and the video speak for themselves. Okay, one other thing, during these formative years, my views about women and sexuality were also affected by Batgirl (see upcoming item below) and the women of Star Trek.
For more of Julie Newmar without the over-dubbed song:
Scat! Darn Catwoman
4. EVERYTHING NAMED BAT - BAT GADGETS - THE BAT POLES - Secret Entrances etc.
As I mentioned before, we had bat poles at my house in Richland. The "bat pole" is pictured here. In the first photo, I tried to capture its length with what it looked like before you hopped on to slide down it. In the second photo, I shot the top of the pole where one hopped on in the "Tower" room, the fourth floor of the house. When I was younger, in the house before this one (the West Gull Lake Drive house), in the 7070 Hazelwood house, I always talked about having a trap door in my room and either a rope ladder to my "secret room" in the basement or just a bat pole behind a secret door in a bookcase, very much like the set up in the Wayne Manor of the Batman TV series. Obviously, these influences are clear. Bat poles, the secret bookcase, the trip switch in the bust of Shakespeare, the secret entrance to the Bat Cave covered by the detour sign. All these things were what I wanted in my own house some day. I think it's great that my father architect decided to install a bat pole in our house in 1979. Everything named "Bat" was also a very powerful motif from the show. The idea was simple enough that it was easily imitated by children playing everywhere. If you're a super hero like Batman, and you invent cool gizmos and gadgets, you're going to name them all with the "Bat" brand: Bat Phone, Bat Signal, Batmobile, Bat Helicopter, Batarang, and my personal favorite: the Bat Shark Repellent. This is a link to the serious Batman gadgets, with more emphasis on the recent Dark Knight films. BATMAN GADGETS But there are sites devoted to the old show, too, such as THE BAT BLOG or for those who like chat: THE 1966 BATMAN MESSAGE BOARD Supposedly, the good people of the message board created a video of all the gadgets. Drill into the site if you want to know more. There's also a good list of gadgets in the BATMOBILE in the BATMAN WIKIA. The original Batmobile was auctioned off in January of 2013. Read about it here. How cool to have one's name on everything. Kind of like "Tower Room" and "Tower House" and "Tower Phone" and...
5. DEATH TRAPS AND CLIFFHANGERS The original Batman TV shows were very formulaic. Often Batman and/or Robin were caught in a death trap at the end of the episode. The cliffhangers would often be resolved in the next episode. This motif kept viewers watching and arranging their days and nights to catch the next episode at "the same bat time and same bat channel." Comic books often use the same idea to keep people reading.
6. BAT GIRL You know what I wrote about Catwoman? Ditto Batgirl. Yvonne Craig who played Batgirl also played the green skinned Orion Slave girl in the original Star Trek episode "Whom the Gods Destroy." But with Batgirl, the comic book company and TV show created a crime fighting girlfriend for Robin. How cool would it be to have a crime fighting girlfriend?
The Secret Origins of BATGIRL
Great video collecting Batgirl clips for the third season of the Batman TV show.
7. THE VILLAINS The Batman show featured all sorts of wonderful villains with great performers playing them. In addition to the great Julie Newmar as Catwoman, there were the others for the big four: The Joker (Cesar Romero), the Penguin (Burgess Meredith), and the Riddler (Frank Gorshin and John Astin). There were many other greats who appeared on the show, such as Milton Berle, Michael Rennie, Anne Baxter, Joan Collins, Eli Wallach, Tallulah Bankhead, Art Carney, Roddy McDowell, Liberace, Shelley Winters, Vincent Price, and so many more. Life is always interesting with such interesting people in it. This is also true of the next item.
8. SCALING THE BUILDINGS - CAMEOS Of course, someone has collected all the window cameos. Hilarious!!
The Complete 14 Batman Window Cameos
9. THE TOYS - MERCHANDISING
Also, my picture.
You should not be surprised to learn that I own(owned) many of the Bat toys, such as a "full size" cardboard Bat Cave play box pictured here with some other kid (pictures of me with mine are still locked away in the Tower vault).
This is a picture of my toys. CLOSE UP.
I still have the Bat Cave playset pictured here, which is currently on display as a cool pop culture artifact in my step-son's bedroom. I shared pictures of myself with the Bat Phone. I also own the Bat Utility Belt pictured here on the entry elsewhere, though I am not sure where it is, though I kept the bat cuffs hanging from a light fixture for many years. This kid in the photo with the Bat Cave could have been me. I played with Bat toys for countless hours as a child. The Batman and Robin figures feature wonderful detail in the way they are painted. I am sad that the uniform emblems have worn away. 10. BATMAN AND ROBIN (CAPES ARE COOL) The toys in the play set show Batman's plastic cape and its cool curve that makes my point well. But the capes are cool as the flow and fly. My mother made me a Batman cape and I used a small yellow baby blanket when I wanted to be Robin. I still have the bat cape somewhere. I was Batman many times for Halloween. MORE BATMAN TV SHOW RESOURCESBATMAN 1966 WIKIBATMAN 1966 IMDB A GREAT FAN SITE: Bat ManiaBATMAN 1966 YOU TUBE CHANNEL Note - there are many videos of these shows on You Tube because for a long time since there were no commercial releases of the episodes. For instance, this appears to be the first episode.
Batman (1966) S01E01 Hi Diddle Riddle
DC is doing a 1966 Batman comic and then there will be new TOYS. They are already solicited.
Do you have great love for this old show? Leave a comment.
T-shirt #93: Free Katie This shirt was a gift from my friend Christine Doré given the semester that we worked together, she serving as my teaching assistant in my sections of WMS:100 at Western Michigan University (for that story: GO HERE and dial back).
Often I would give gifts to the TAs and they would give gifts to me, especially after the Fall semester, given the proximity of Christmas.
I feel free to confess this now: I had a crush on Katie Holmes (in so far as anyone can have a crush on someone he has never met and has only seen playing another character in a television show).
I watched DAWSON'S CREEK primarily because Katie Holmes was amazingly smart, cool, and beautiful: in sum, adorable. And DAWSON was clearly an IDIOT, which is the quick summary of that show: "Dawson's Creek: a show about how stupid Dawson is and how not stupid Pacey is (and a few other characters and their stories)." Great show if you like episodic, sudsy-style weekly melodrama for teens with a hip vibe and smart mouthed teensters spouting rapid fire dialogue for which the WB became well known (see my other faves such as Gilmore Girls, Felicity, Veronica Mars, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
ANYWAY.............................
So there was this whole Winona Ryder thing in which she had allegedly shop-lifted from a Saks store in Beverly Hills. She was taken into custody and was found to be in possession of items she had not paid for and addictive narcotics for which she did not have a prescription. An L.A. gift shop owner started a fun T-shirt campaign with these "Free Winona" T-shirts.
I had been discussing with Christine how I wanted a "Free Winona" T-shirt but had missed out on getting one right around the time that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes started seeing each other (and soon got married). So, Christine got me this "Free Katie" T-shirt (which is around 2005).
There was a whole campaign to "free Katie" for the clutches of culty evil and "love." And there's many fan sites and blogs and images and a wealth of material at the touch of the fingertips on the keypad.
There's everything on the Internet. It's a good thing Al Gore invented it.
Apparently, there are other styles of "Free Katie" shirts as seen in that article from 2012.
My crush on Katie Holmes is now just a distant memory as falling in love with my wife and getting married has changed everything. I still think Katie Holmes is attractive, smart, cool, and bad at choosing men for relationships. But the ardent crush on her TV persona (or any of her movie personas) faded long ago.
Still, the shirt is funny. Or at least, I think it's funny.
I used to keep a top ten list of celebrity women that I found most attractive and with whom I would most like to "spend time" if I had the opportunity (which I never would). I don't really keep this list anymore now that I am married. My wife trumps all such lists. And I am not just saying that because I know I should say it. I actually mean it. But given that this blog is about making lists, I have decided to share the top ten list of women who had most often held places on this list, but in an effort to de-emphasize this list, I will list horizontally rather than vertically: Ashley Judd, Lauren Graham, Katie Holmes, Eliza Dushku, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sadé, Erykah Badu, Susan Sarandon, Morena Baccarin, and Gong Li.
Do you sense a theme here? All these women (except Sarandon) share one common trait. Others had made the list in years past: Diane Sawyer, Tia Carrere, Gillian Anderson, Elizabeth McGovern, Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega, Kate Bush, MIA, Dana Delaney, Polly Draper and others. Winona Ryder made the list at some point. And when Alanis Morrisette sung about being jilted, I wondered if I could be the kind of guy that would make her happy. Going farther back, my attractions are peopled with women such as Julie Newmar and Yvonne Craig (as both will be featured in an upcoming blog post). There were others, such as
Ava Gardner, Jennifer Jones, Susan Dey, Jane Seymour, Barbara Bach, Raquel Welch, Lara Parker, Diana Rigg, and Maureen McCormick.
But I do not actively keep this list anymore. I can acknowledge that Zoe Saldana is super awesome as Uhura; I am not immune. But the passion of the interest has changed since I fell heels over head for my wife and got married. But I can still appreciate beauty in a kind of distanced and abstract way.
On a somewhat unrelated note yet related to this blog: Yesterday, my wife told me it was National T-shirt Day/ I can find no confirmation this using Al Gore's Internet. Puzzling that.
I had these candid shots taken in Fanfare by Andrew (Thanks Andrew! I just learned his name.)
I have been buying comics and related merchandise from Fanfare since 1984. Next year will mark the 30th year of my purchasing history! Is that something of which I should be proud? (Because I am proud.)
Featured in the photos are long-time manager Bill Artis (on my right; your left) and associate manager Jeffery Johnson (my left; your right), who is a writer and a member of a writer's group to which we both belong. Bill is about the biggest Superman fan I have ever met. He even likes the art of Curt Swan, which I think is quite amazing as I think Swan makes Superman looks fat, like he has a spare tire. Inexplicably, even though Bill (not Swan or Superman) has lived in Michigan all his life, he is a fan of ATLANTA sports teams. I heckle him about these two things all the time.
Jefferey is a huge Spider-Man fan, which should be obvious due to his "Amazing" apparel. Jeffery is a very excellent writer and has agreed, kindly, to share his work with me so we can discuss it both in the writer's group and apart from it. I do not know if Jeffery has any interest in sports, but we often discuss Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead in addition to various comic books that we're reading. Since Jeffery works at FANFARE, he gets to read comics FOR FREE, which I consider a tremendous benefit.
Jeffery also has been posting videos about his life, which he calls "Game of Triplets" because of his babies.
I am thankful to live in a town with an excellent, independent, locally-owned, direct-sales comic shop like Fanfare. Owner Tom Fleming (who I may coerce to be pictured in the future along with the other Fanfare employees) has savvy business sense and has built Fanfare from a tiny hole in the wall housed in the studio of a defunct radio station to a thriving powerhouse in the local economy.
I am also thankful for the community that exists at Fanfare. Though I do not take advantage of the weekly gaming opportunities that Fanfare provides for its customer base, I do delight in having conversations with the employees and have forged strong friendships (at least on the pop culture and semi-personal level) with many of these wonderful folks. I hope they enjoy chatting with me as much as I enjoy chatting with them as I visit (at least once a week) for my comic book crack hit: "And through the years, we all will be together, as the fates allow..." (I know, it's corny, but I am very fond of my peeps at Fanfare).
MAD MAGAZINE: Obviously, I am a huge fan. I own a few shirts that depict Mad or EC, its original company. Mad Magazine is now published by DC Entertainment.So, in short, this is a subject to which I will return.
Like with so many things from the 1970s and my childhood, I was (and am) mad for Mad Magazine. I read it avidly throughout my childhood (probably around 1970 through 1980). Like many things, I moved away from it once I went to college but later re-discovered it. My childhood years were strongly influenced by the monthly magazine itself and the collected paperbacks published in the '70s. Though I do not own all the paperbacks, I own several (and like my interest in collecting the Doc Savage Bantam novels, I may need to collect the Mad Magazine paperbacks as well, though I am leery of accumulating too much more stuff, but there are not that many paperbacks in this set).
Since marrying my wife and joining this family, I gift a subscription of Mad Magazine to my step-son Ivan each year for his birthday. Do I gift this because Ivan really likes Mad or because I do? Who likes it more? It is difficult to say.
I may not enjoy its sarcastic humor and parodies as much as I did when I was younger. But I still enjoy it, if only for the way the humor reminds me of a time in my life when I felt that Mad Magazine was THE BEST THING EVER.
Here's a new feature, in case I am not generating enough content already...
WEEKLY COMIC BOOK STACK
Each week, after I go to Fanfare and buy my comic books for the week, which I order by the month two months in advance from a catalogue (the Previews Catalog from the Diamond Distribution Company) of all solicitations available to the store, I put the comics in the order I wish to read them. Comics on which I have not kept up fall deeper in the stack with the others that are accumulating down there. For the week starting June 19th, these back-logged titles included Ultimates and, even though I adore it, Fables as well as the former Batman and Robin title, which is now, this week, Batman and Batgirl. I also dropped the Lobo: 100 Bullets mini-series issue #1 deep in the stack because I am not too excited about it, but I did buy it.
Since this blog is dedicated to lists and categories, dedicated to self-inventory and reflection as well as a historical record for posterity, I decided to list these weekly comics in the order I have arranged them for reading. This occupation will reveal what I am reading (which will draw ire or at least comments from some of the peanut gallery) as well as what I have favored as the top of the stack reflects the comics I am most eager to read. Unlike some people (ahem - Joshua Upson), I do not (cannot) save my favorites for last. I would never read my favorites each week if I saved them, due to the stacking up of titles in my back log. As for this week's read, so far, I only managed to read the top two as of last night.
COMIC BOOKS FOR JUNE 19TH
Age of Ultron - Book #10 New Avengers #7 Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #24 Fantastic Four #9 The Superior Spider-Man #12 Avengers #14 Thunderbolts #11 Uncanny Avengers #9 Legion of Superheroes #21 Max Brooks - The Extinction Parade #1 Mara #5 Mind the Gap #11
This week I also bought this Galactus Bottle Opener pictured here. I mean, come on. How could I NOT buy this? And it has magnets for easy refrigerator hanging!
More to come on the subject of Mad Magazine but that's all for now.
Oh, yes, if you did not know this about me, I write theatre reviews for the Battle Creek Enquirer.
I did not give the MCP's production of JC Superstar a very good review. Though for me, when I criticize flaws and poor choices by a theatrical company, the actual criticisms are limited and mixed with plenty of praise, and the review always ends with a call to action, urging the reader to go see the show and support the live theater.
In May, I was set to return to Marshall to see the MCP's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. After some MCP faithful complained about my JC Superstar review on FACEBOOK, I was eager to return in the hopes of giving Midsummer a good review and assuage some hurt feelings and anger. Often (though not always) I feel badly making criticisms of a theatrical production, especially a community theater of all volunteers. The people involved work so very hard on a show and sacrifice so much that in some ways they simply deserve praise for all the hard work. But like grades in college (my other job), we cannot give A grades for effort alone. There is not an effective way to judge effort. The assessment is always based on the end product. And I am a "theatre critic" not a platform to create 100% positive advertising for the production.
And yet, audiences are not filling theaters as they had been a decade ago, let alone decades farther back. Every year, I seem to have the same conversation with Brendan Ragotzy of the Barn Theatre about the dwindling audience and the expense of running a professional summer stock theater. It was not that long ago that the Barn had to adjust its schedule to allow for an extended run of a hot show with audiences packing its house. Not so in recent years. The Barn even had to close for one year to recoup lost revenue and regroup.
As for my recent review, was my objectivity affected by my love for Jesus Christ Superstar? Possibly, somewhat, though I think I gave the show a fair assessment and loads of praise along with some key criticisms. Do I bring preconceived notions and expectations to a viewing of Jesus Christ Superstar? YES. I expect the part of Judas, the show's key role, to be sung in its original arrangement, someone with a high range. And though the actor playing Judas need not be African-American in every production (despite the original Broadway production and film castings), the juxtaposition of a black Judas and a white Jesus--especially given the skin pigments people probably actually had in that part of the Middle East 2000+ years ago--creates an interesting dynamic on many levels.
Carl Anderson who played Judas in the 1973 film.
Anyway, when I was all set to return to Marshall in May for Midsummer, I was hit with a gastointestinal flu virus that knocked me on my back and made a trip to Marshall and sitting through a potentially LONG Shakespearean production impossible. I was disappointed as I felt I owed the MCP a good review.
Today, Thursday June 20th, I return to Marshall to see Sondheim's Company but not at the MCP's venue but at a place called the Great Escape Stage Company. I am attending with a friend who I made through reviewing, despite some criticisms, which are now water under that oft-mentioned bridge: Gregg Morris.
Back to JC Superstar.
This is the LP I am talking about: with shrink wrap!
Though the Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice rock opera hit Broadway in 1971, it did not reach the consciousness of a young Michigan child (that's me) until the film was released in 1973. The scuttlebutt at the time, as so many gossips were spread solely by word of mouth back then since the Internet had not yet been invented, was that in the title song, "Superstar," Judas sings: "Jesus Christ Superstar, who the Hell do you think you are?"
Being told this by "offended" classmates, I begged my parents for the record album. At this time, there were three albums: the original double album from 1970 (released before the Broadway production launched), the double LP movie soundtrack, and a single LP of selections from the rock opera. My parents bought me the less expensive single, selected LP, and I listened intensely. Remember, we did not have the Internet to look up lyrics transcribed by other people (who seem to have a lot of time for hobbies like transcribing lyrics for the Internet.... says the kettle calling the pot "black"). I could not be sure of what Judas was singing, but I was pretty sure he was not singing: "who the Hell do you think you are?" All I could be certain of was the line ended in "you are." Later, I would learn that the line is "Do you think you're what they say you are?"
I used to dance and sing these lyrics with the microphone and toy speaker my parents gave me for Christmas, often in the outfit pictured here (right).
Other music in rotation at this time: The Partridge Family, The Brady Bunch, David Cassidy, Michael Jackson, the Jackson Five, Josie and the Pussycats, Tony DeFranco and the DeFranco Family, Bobby Sherman, Donny Osmond, the Osmonds, Marie and Jimmy Osmond, The Harlem Globetrotters Theme Song, and Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods.
LAST COMMENT ON JC SUPERSTAR: Once I went to college, I met many people also fascinated by Jesus Christ Superstar. I discussed launching a production of the show and fiddling with gender. My friend Elaine Klein would have made a great Judas (and loved the role as much as I did). How would the show's dynamic change if Judas was a woman? Or what if Jesus was played by a woman? What if the all the roles were played by women except Judas? And so on, the gender variations are fascinating and would open up all sorts of interpretations.
CHRIS TOWER'S TOP FIVE FAVORITE STAGE MUSICALS
1. Jesus Christ Superstar
2. A Chorus Line
3. Godspell
4. Hair
5. Rent
Second five (to round out the top ten)
6. Sweeney Todd
7. Forever Plaid
8. Scrooge
9. Rocky Horror Show
10. The Who's Tommy
Notables that I like but do not make my top ten: The Magic Show; Once Upon a Mattress; West Side Story; Pippin; The Fantastiks; Little Shop of Horrors; Avenue Q; Wicked; The Lion King; Baby; I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change; and the 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee.
Singin' in the Rain is among my favorite movies of all time and a great musical, but since it started in film and this is a stage musical list, I left it off. I also happen to love the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that's a story for another time.
Though I have seen Jesus Christ Superstar many times, I am most fond of seeing the Ted Neeley Farewell Tour" or the "New A.D. Tour" September 23, 2006 at the Wharton Center in East Lansing, Michigan.
I have heard of the 1994 version featuring the Indigo Girls, but I have not seen or listened to recordings.
The other day, I eschewed brands and logos in the entry for T-shirt #87; however, I had forgotten that I owned this shirt featuring the cute, little alien from the Quisp breakfast cereal.
Quisp was a breakfast cereal made by Quaker Oats starting in 1965, very similar to Cap'n Crunch in taste. I always thought of the cereal as being shaped like little, flying saucers because of the alien mascot hence the garish title line that I colored in pink and green. Quaker claims that the cereal is shaped like Qs (as in the letter) though I have seen the shapes described others as flying saucers, too. Either way, the "crunch corn cereal" will fill you with "QUAZY energy," according to the box's text.
The advertisements for Quisp were created by Jay Ward, an animator who had worked on the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon (one of my favorites). In both 1972 and 1976, Quaker ran a competition between two of its cereals, asking fans to vote on which cereal would remain on the shelves and which would be discontinued. Each time Quisp beat Quake and Quangaroos, respectively, to remain in production.
Though sales began to fade as the '70s also faded and Quisp was eventually discontinued, its frequent return is further proof of the power of fandom, crying out for the cereal of their youth. Quisp has returned once a decade since the Seventies.
Quisp became the first cereal for sale on the Internet starting in 2001.
In the 2000s, Quaker sold a commemorative watch via the Quisp website (now defunct).
There have been comments by readers (verbal mostly) that my blogs entries are very long. It is true. I can't deny that I am verbose, wordy, Baroque in the extreme. See? Right there, I could have just described myself as "wordy."
Then, yesterday, a good friend told me that I am cool, and cooler than he originally believed. I am touched by this compliment.
With the original concept for the blog, I intended to make short entries. If you do not believe me, dial back to the first five entries. They are all short blurbs. Not crazy long essays. Even T-shirt #6: Discpline is very much on the short side. But then they started to grow. Some are crazy long. I need to continue my dedication to variety both in subject matter (at least day-to-day) as well as length.
And so, in keeping with that variety thing, another short-ish entry.
Like many American comic book readers, I have Frank Miller to thank for introducing me to Japanese Manga, principally the series: Lone Wolf and Cub. Miller's comic Ronin (1983-1984) sparked my interest in Manga just before my internship in New York, where I was able to find Manga racked in comic book stores. No surprise that my interest flared as Ronin was inspired by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub. In 1987, the now defunct comic company FIRST COMICS began publishing translations of the manga with covers by Miller and others.
Other companies followed as interest in and sales for manga translations grew. Marvel Comics' Epic division--where I worked in 1985--published Akira under the stewardship of Jo Duffy, who had great interest in manga and Akira in particular. Other manga translations followed as Eclipse Comics partnered with Viz Communications division with titles such as The Legend of Kamui and my all-time favorite Mai, the Psychic Girl. (Eclipse was helmed by the Mullaney brothers who hired Cat Yronwode as editor. Yronwode is due to be featured in an upcoming blog entry that I have already started writing and researching, so I think this connection is interesting.)
Starting in 2000, Dark Horse Comics began releasing the Lone Wolf and Cub translations in trade paperback format. DH Comics added the volumes (28 in all) to its digital platform in 2012.
A re-imagined version titled Lone Wolf 2100 was created by writer Mike Kennedy and artist Francisco Ruiz Velasco with Koike's indirect involvement in 2002 (published by Dark Horse). Though the series did not sell as well as the original, I thought it was excellent.
Dark Horse recently announced obtaining the license to Shin Lone Wolf and Cub, a follow-up to the original series by Kazuo Koike and Hideki Mori.
The original Lone Wolf and Cub manga began publication in Japan in 1970 and spans 28 volumes totaling over 8700 pages in all.
It is regarded as one of the greatest and most epic manga of all time.
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