30 Years of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - part 5

When the first STAR WARS movie came out in May of 1977 it's tremendous success took everyone by complete surprise. Fans of the movie wanted to take a bit of the movie home in the form of tie-in products, but were out of luck since no one really had the foresight to license any. It wouldn't be until early 1978 for the licensed products to start trickling in.

The mistake was not repeated when THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK made it's debut. Licensed products were ready and available before the movie even reached theaters. You can see some of the variety below. These pages were scanned from a catalogue from TKRP: The Best in the Galaxy, a mail order company based out of Michigan. I couldn't tell you what the TKRP stood for. I was on their mailing list for some time, so I must have bought something from them.

                                                     

  

 

 

More to come tomorrow.

30 Years of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - part 4

Happy STAR WARS day! Since today is May The Fourth (Be With You) it seemed only appropriate that this day be dedicated to Yoda, the diminutive, hermit, Jedi Master. Yoda was without a doubt the most significant new character to be introduced in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. While STAR WARS introduced us to the Force, except for convincing some stormtoopers that "These aren't the droids you're looking for," distracting a couple more stormtroopers with a ventriloquism trick on the Death Star, and a couple other minor bits, we don't really see the Force in all its glory. But beginning with Luke's telekinetic grab of his lightsaber in the Wampa cave, this movie is all about learning how to use different aspects of the Force. Our guide, and Luke's, is Yoda.

What made Yoda impressive aside from his wonky syntax and his gently mad, playful persona, was the fact that he was a puppet, a puppet with an amazing amount of screen time, with the camera lingering over him and never once looking phony, like anything less than a living breathing creature. Part of the credit goes to creature maker Stuart Freeborn, who sculpted and manufactured the puppet, as seen below.

Most of the credit though belongs to performer Frank Oz, who not only physically manipulated Yoda, guiding his physical performance, but lent him his voice. Oz was a veteran puppeteer for the muppets of "Sesame Street" (Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster) and the "Muppet Show" (Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Sam the Eagle, Animal), and Yoda's voice is somewhat remiscent of Grover and Fozzie Bear. Oz made Yoda breathe.

For some do it yourself Yoda fun, try some Yoda Origami. If the instructions baffle you, there are a number of video tutorials on You tube.


  

30 Years of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - part 3

"What is thy bidding, my master?"

One of the things that THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK did successfully as a sequel was not to simply repeat the successful formula of its predecessor. STAR WARS gave us a lot of new stuff to be amazed by, from the huge star destroyer flying overhead in the opening, to the droids, the twin suns of Tatooine, the cantina, the force, lightsabers, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, the Death Star, the holographic chess game, etc., etc., which you'd think would be hard for TESB to even equal. 

 TESB does manage to bring in lots of new stuff from tauntauns and probe droids to the AT-AT walkers, giant space slugs, a first glimpse of Vader's head sans helmet, and cloud city just to name a few. It also introduced a number of long lasting new characters. Among them is our first look at the Emperor. 

Mentioned, but not scene, in STAR WARS (Episode IV - A New Hope), the Emperor appears as an imposing giant holographic bust, overwhelming Darth Vader who kneels in submission before him. Vader's status in this movie seems elevated beyond the mere henchman to Grand Moff Tarkin that he was before, but his subservience to the Emperor only adds to the mysterious Emperor's seeming to be all powerful and all seeing. 

Heightening this sense of the Emperor being all seeing and all powerful was his strange and eerie appearance. We can't see his face clearly, but there is definitely something that is not normal about it, or inhuman. The Emperor was physically portrayed by an ucredited, and possible elderly, actress who wore make-up appliances to give the upper portion of the face, particularly the eye sockets their peculiar appearance. Enhancing the strangeness were the chimpanzee eyes which were optically superimposed over the eye sockets. The Emperor's somewhat mystical and authoritative voice was provided by Clive Revill, a celebrated stage and voice actor, who has also physically appeared in a number of movies. 

This scene was changed following the release of STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH. The holographic emperor, chimpanzee eyes, voice and all, were removed and replaced with the Emperor as portrayed by Ian McDiarmid, the actor who played him in STAR WARS: EPISODE VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI as well as the three prequel movies. Additional dialogue was also added to the sequence. 

Admittedly, this visual continuity makes a lot of sense, and is one of the least arbitrary seeming changes that George Lucas has imposed on the STAR WARS movies post release, and McDiarmid provides one of the best performances throughout the STAR WARS films, but his incarnation of the Emperor, while evil and creepy looking, does note evoke that same alien mysteriousness that the original did. 

In 2008 Hasbro made a really cool toy of this scene for their popular Star Wars action figure line. The toy includes electronic elements which allow the Emperor's hologram to light up and  a sound chip which repeats all of the sound and dialogue for this scene. 

You can see more image of the toy at Rebelscum where the above image was obtained. 

30 Years of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - part 2

While THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK would contain some surprises along the way, the first big revelation came during the opening crawl. This was a sequel, the first sequel, to a movie simply called STAR WARS, yet this new movie announced itself not as STAR WARS 2, or even STAR WARS - Episode II, but STAR WARS - Episode V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Say what?

Time magazine dug into this mystery before the film's release and found out some tidbits that I'm going to share in full here, not only for the accurate hints of what lay ahead for the STAR WARS saga, but for insights into what didn't.

"[George] Lucas has begun his space saga in the middle, and both pictures are the centerpieces of a projected nine-part series. The remaining movies, fore and aft, have not yet been laid out in detail, but Lucas has a framework, a kind of history of what happened in that galaxy long ago and far away. A preview:

"For years the universe was governed by a republic, which was regulated by the order of Jedi Knights, who bore a vague resemblance to Japanese Samurai warriors. But eventually the citizens of the republic 'didn't care enough to elect competent officials,' says Lucas the historian, and so their government collapsed. A sorcerer, a bad counterpart of Yoda, blocked all opposition and declared himself Emperor. He was not seen in Star Wars: Episode IV, but he makes a brief appearance in The Empire.

"The Emperor subverts Darth Vader to his side, and together he and Vader betray the other Knights, nearly all of whom are killed in their trap. Ben Kenobi escapes, and after a fierce struggle he does such injury to Vader that forever after Vader must wear a mask and that noisy life-support system. The fall of the republic and the rise of the empire will form the first of Lucas' three trilogies.

"The second trilogy, which opened with Star Wars: Episode IV, centers on Luke Skywalker, who will be seen as a child in Episode III. The Empire continues the Skywalker story, and Episode VI, the next film to be made, which will be called Revenge of the Jedi, will end it, with either Luke or Darth Vader walking away from their final bout. The last three episodes involve the rebuilding of the republic.

"Only two of the main characters will appear in all nine films, and they are the robots, Artoo Detoo and Threepio. Says Lucas: 'In effect, the story will be told through their eyes.'"

Now, not only were people speculating on what would happen in the next movie, but what happened before the first one, and what will happen way down the line. Of course, there was no way of knowing back then, that Lucas' plans for a third trilogy would fizzle, with him retroactively claiming he never had plans to film a third trilogy. There was also no way to know that the first of the prequels wouldn't appear until 1999, or that it would not have any of the excitement, adventure, and especially the fun, of either Star Wars: Episode IV, or Star Wars: Episode V.

I always liked the notion that the movies were meant to be viewed from the perspective of the droids, and early expanded universe material implied that both R2-D2 and C-3PO had been around for some time, and had gone through a succession of owners, together, as C-3PO's designation of them being counterparts to one another would imply. None of this early expanded universe material implied that R2-D2 was once little more than an accessory on a royal starship owned during her time in office by Luke and Leia's mom, or that he didn't meet C-3PO until finding him being assembled by a little kid who would later be Luke and Leia's dad, and Darth Vader. If someone had told me this theory back in 1980, I would have thought they were an idiot. Of course, neither of the droids, particularly poor C-3PO had much to do in the prequels, removing their status of eyewitnesses to galactic history as it unfolded.

As for the title. When the original STAR WARS was rereleased in 1977, the opening went from the STAR WARS logo falling back into space followed by the opening crawl, which looked like this:

In 1981, when STAR WARS was rereleased, the opening crawl appeared in an altered form which also answered the question of the movie's subtitle, which had not been thought up by the time THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was released. That crawl looked like this:

It certainly did not have that ring to it that "The Empire Strikes Back" or "Revenge of the Jedi" had to them, or that sense of promising a good time. "A New Hope" was about as ho-hum as it gets, and people who were there to see Episode IV during it's first theatrical release still refer to it simply as "Star Wars."


   

30 Years of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - part 1

Three years ago I celebrated 30 years of Star Wars by posting a new post for thirty days highlighting some aspect of what we now call "Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope" or it's tie-in merchandising.

Since "Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" turns 30 later this month, I thought I'd do the same. Starting today, and for the next 30 days, you'll find a new post here pertaining to "The Empire Strikes Back."

Today brings you one of the earliest images connected to the movie seen by fans. This logo called "Vader In Flames" was created by Star Wars conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie and was later adapted as a cloth patch sewn onto the jackets worn by the crew.

If you were a member of the Official Star Wars fan club you could obtain a replica of the patch for $3.00. I still have mine.

In Comic Book Stores Today

THE WEB #8 hits comic book stores today. In the Hangman co-feature written by me with art by Tom Derenick, Bill Sienkiewicz, Guy Major and letters by Travis Lanham, The Hangman finds himself the victim of a deadly imposter, hunted by the authorities, and discovers some startling secrets about the nature of his powers. 

The main feature, starring the Web, was written by Matthew Sturges with art by Roger Robinson, Hilary Barta, Guy Major and letters by Travis Lanham. The cover is by Stanley "Artgerm" Lau. Published by DC Comics. 

Tim Burton at MOMA

Last Thursday I was fortunate enough to take in the extensive Tim Burton show at  the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. The show which ran from November 22, 2009 ends today.

It took me over three hours to examine everything on display. Some of this was because the show was packed with attendees, but mainly it was because the show was packed with art. Paintings, drawings, writings, childhood ephemera, and television screens covered the walls as did sculptures. There were also more sculptures on display throughout, movie props, stop motion animation puppets, costumes, storyboards and concept art by artists working on Burton's movies and more.

I watched every bit of film being shown (except for VINCENT, which I've seen many, many times) and was happy to see movies he did as a kid (two of which were uncannily close to movies I did as a kid), as a Cal Arts student (including STALK OF THE CELERY MONSTER), HANSEL AND GRETEL, some STAIN BOY cartoons. commercials and a music video,  and some stop motion test footage from MARS ATTACKS!. As you'd expect, his juvenile efforts were, well, juvenile, but amazingly already exhibited much of the themes, content, and visual imagery that would later become staples of the Tim Burton "look."

I couldn't hazard a guess at how many pieces of two dimensional artwork were on display, but it was easily in the hundreds. Again, pieces ranged from juvenilia such as a pencil portrait of Vincent Price done in High School, and some art that won him contests and were featured in local advertising, including anti-littering signs mounted to the sides of Burbank's garbage trucks. Unlike his early movies, his early art style was clearly based on Dr. Seuss, and then through a Gerald Scarfe/Ralph Steadman phase until it became purely his own. It pained me a bit to encounter three pieces in the show that I nearly bought when I lived in Los Angeles. I definitely felt some heavy twangs of non-buyer's remorse.

Props on display included stop motion puppets from VINCENT, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, THE CORPSE BRIDE, and MARS ATTACKS! It was particularly exciting to see the puppets from VINCENT even in their decayed state. The level of detail on the puppets for TNMBC and TCB was astonishing. Photographs don't do them justice. Also on display were a pair of severed heads, a scarecrow, and the Headless Horseman's cape from SLEEPY HOLLOW, various helmets from PLANET OF THE APES, the razors from SWEENEY TODD, a cookie cutter robot and the full costume of the title character from EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, three of BATMAN's cowls, Catwoman's costume and the baby carriage that carried an infant Penguin in BATMAN RETURNS, the funhouse door and angora sweater from ED WOOD, striped elongated sleeves and a prop newspaper from BEETLEJUICE, a clock from HANSEL AND GRETEL and the above animatronic figures from CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.

The exhibit also included some original sculptures made by Burton and others by collaborators, as well as a large, dark Christmas themed Stainboy diorama with music by Danny Elfman.

The exhibition space was also well designed with a fantastic themed entry way which can be seen a couple posts back. While the majority of the exhibit was housed on MOMA's third floor, more of it spilled into the rest of the museum including a replica of one of the topiary animals from EDWARD SCISSORHANDS in the sculpture garden, a gigantic inflatable "Balloon Boy" on the main floor, a gallery of movie posters, some more three dimensional pieces and oversized polaroid photos in the basement. the museum also ran Tim Burton's movies and movies that shaped him such as JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS.

Only two things disappointed me. I was hoping to see more of Burton's photography. I know there's a lot more of it than what was on exhibit, and had hoped it was going to be included. Also, the exhibit had a strictly enforced "no photography' policy and the guards were alert and quick in coming down on anyone trying to get around that. There is an excellent book that accompanies this exhibit, well worth the price (and except for the MOMA store, only available at the website linked here), and crammed with Burton's two dimensional art from the exhibit, but not including images of any of the three dimensional pieces, or pre-production art by others. I would have loved to have taken a few shots of the props and animation puppets, or at least seen a companion volume that included all of these as a nice alternative to missing out on taking photos.

The photos shown in this post were all taken from elsewhere on the web, mostly from press coverage of the exhibit. I apologize for not citing where I found them. I grabbed these initially for my own personal use as a substitute for being unable to take any of my own, without noting where they came from not originally intending to post about the exhibit. I am including some of them here for illustrative purposes. If any of these photos belong to anyone reading this, please email me, or comment below, and I'll happily credit you. 

So, did I have a favorite piece in the exhibit, and what was it?  You can see it below. It's called "Carousel" based on a pastel on black paper piece of art, which in turn is reminiscent of Beetlejuice's circus tent costume with carousel hat. It spins, it lights up, it has music, it's otherworldly, it's amazing. 

For more photos of Carousel, including detail pictures of all of the creatures hanging from it, as well as a thorough documentation of the setting up of the complete exhibit, take a look at this fantastic series of photos on flickr.

      

Bride of Frankenstein turns 75

Today, what I consider to be an absolutely perfect horror movie turns 75. BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, a sequel to 1931's FRANKENSTEIN,  was released on April 22, 1935, a perfect blend of horror, humor, social commentary, art direction, acting, direction, writing, costumes, special effects and make-up, and one of the best and most memorable scores in cinematic history composed by Franz Waxman. 

Boris Karloff returns as the monster, and Colin Clive as the man who created him. Introduced this time is Ernest Thesiger who steals the movie with his campy yet threatening performance as Dr. Pretorius, who is a true mad scientist as opposed to the repentant Dr.  Frankenstein who has clearly suffered from a nervous breakdown. 

The film also introduces a new monster to Universal's cannon of iconic creatures, and it's first (and only long lasting) female monster. While it could be argued that Valerie Hobson, who plays Elizabeth, wife of Dr. Frankenstein is truly the bride of Frankenstein in the same way that Frankenstein is the scientist and not the monster he created, Dr. Pretorius christens the new creation, meant to be the monster's mate, "the bride of Frankenstein."

Given her roughly five minutes of screen time, the Bride is completely captivating. Elsa Lanchester based her birdlike performance on the swans in Regent's Park, London. The Bride's movements suggest a confusion of being brought back to life as well as brain damage. The Bride's overall look with her gowned bandage covered body, long neck, scars, wide unblinking eyes, capped with that shock of dark hair with it's twin white streaks, like a dark cloud releasing the twin bolts of lightning that brought her back to life, is completely striking, and as original and iconic as what Jack Pierce did when creating the make-up for the Frankenstein monster. It's impossible to imagine a way of depicting the Bride superior to what's here. 

     

Finally...

After months of promising myself I was going to get down to NYC to see this,  I'm heading down today to take in the Tim Burton exhibit at MOMA.

I'll also be taking in some work related meetings, but this will be the highlight of my trip.





  

Mighty Crusaders Interview

THE MIGHTY CRUSADERS SPECIAL from DC Comics goes on sale May 26. The special teams up The Web, Inferno, the Shield, the Comet, and the Hangman, leading the way for THE MIGHTY CRUSADERS mini-series out in July (the cover for the first issue of this is shown above). The special was written by Eric Trautmann, Matthew Sturges, Brandon Jerwa, and myself with artwork by Javi Pina and a cover by Stanley "Artgerm" Lau.

Comic Book Resources has an interview conducted by Rik Offenberger with the four writers involved in the project. You can read it here.

Countdown to Halloween

Halloween may still be six months away, but Shawn Robare has been a busy little mad scientist doing a fantastic job sprucing up the Countdown to Halloween site, the official launching page of links to every blog participating in this annual event (now in it's fifth year).

Head on over, take a look at what's new, and revisit some blogs you may not have checked in on since last October.

What I've Been Reading

After commentary and questions regarding my old comic book, XOMBI, and various requests, the email I most often receive are questions about what I've been reading. I get that. Being a writer implies that I'm also a reader (though when I lived in Los Angeles I visited many a writer's home where not a single book could be found which I found baffling). I guess if you're someone who likes my work, you might seek what I'm reading for further reading enjoyment of your own, or I suppose some way of uncovering some insight into how I approach my own work. Whatever the reasons, I too often ask writers I like what they've been reading, so I'm not immune.

Seeing as how I've received a number of requests over the past few weeks, I thought I'd post three books I've recently completed. If there's any interest in this sort of thing here, versus the form of an individual emailed response (which I'm really bad about doing) I'll try to make this a periodic, yet regular feature here.

Most recently, I read BAMBI by Felix Salten. Most of you have probably seen the Animated Disney adaptation, but not read the novel. Like the movie it follows a young deer named Bambi as he finds his place in his world. The animals do speak in the book, but remain animals and not extensively anthropomorphized animals. Their behavior is consistent with the behavior of their real world counterparts. If your a parent who thinks the seen in the movie where Bambi loses his mother is too frightening for kids, then don't even think about reading this to your young ones. This book is far more violent and frightening. Animals prey on other animals, scavenge the carcasses of others whom they were familiar with in life, and the scenes with the human hunters and the wildlife is far more horrifying than anything in the movie, and without any cuteness or sentimentality to be found. I found it to be a pretty riveting read. And, yes, this is something I read in the context of a project I am working on.

Before this I read MAYFLOWER by Nathaniel Philbrick.  As you would probably guess this book is about the Pilgrims who settled Plymouth, Massachusetts and who are now immortalized in the form of Thanksgiving. As someone who grew up, and currently lives, within half an hour of where the Pilgram's settled, I was stunned by how much I didn't know about this historic time period, or the events connected to the settling of this area by the English. Unfortunately, American public schools seem to only teach about the Pilgrims in first grade, then never again, consigning them to the same grade, and same context as the craft project of tracing your hand on a piece of paper and turning it into a turkey. This book was filled with excitement, action, and political intrigue. It would make an amazing television series, and as a book is always fascinating and often times a riveting page turner. I can't recommend this book enough. Yes, I also read this in the context of a project of my own. In fact, it's the same project I read Bambi for.

Before that I read THE RUINS by Scott Smith. This is an engrossing novel about a group of tourists who take a day trip into the Mexican jungle in order to retrieve the brother of one of the central characters from an archeological dig where he's become involved with one of the archeologists. Things begin to go very wrong once they get there and get progressively worse, and worse. The book has a a driving sense of dread that propels the reader to turn the pages to find out what's coming next, and doesn't dish out any revelations or exposition until it's absolutely needed--when it's usually too late. It is a horror story and people do die horribly. This was a book I simply could not put down and I recommend it quite a bit. It may be the best horror novel I've read since PET SEMATARY by Stephen King (which crazy as it seems, is apparently out of print). This one had nothing to do with anything I'm working on. 

     

The Art of Mike Mignola

The Art of Mike Mignola is the new official website of Hellboy creator and extraordinary storyteller, Mike Mignola. The site is up and running as of today, and like his art (of which there are many beautiful pieces on display) is a thing of beauty in itself. The site also has news updates and stuff you can buy. I highly recommend it.

Car Talk meets Car Chat

This showed up in my mail today from Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the entertaining hosts of NPRs "Car Talk" and inspiration for their counterparts, Tim and Roy, hosts of "Car Chat" (shown below) from SCOOBY-DOO #153, published by DC Comics.

This story was written by me with Matt Jenkins handling the drawing, Rob Clark Jr. doing the lettering, Heroic Age tackling the colors, and Harvey Richards editing the whole thing.

Tom and Ray were delighted by their appearance in Scooby-Doo, which is much better news than receiving a letter from their lawyers, Dewey, Cheethan, and Howe.

Thumbnail Illustrations

For a few years I did a number of projects for the now, sadly, defunct Shaman Drum bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The work ranged from small in-store displays, larger window displays, an enormous installation for the children's section and some images for their website.

The images shown here were all done as illustrations for the website, meant to symbolize various categories of books being sold. The images were also designed to be viewed at a small thumbnail size of less than an inch in height, which is how they appeared in their header locations on the category settings.

The actual pieces weren't much bigger. Most were less than five inches in height. The visual components had to be simple and easy to read at such a small scale and also to visually encapsulate what they represented. I also tried to stay away from obvious clichés.

Since Shaman Drum is no longer with us and their website is now simply an announcement of closure, I've decided to post the images I created here, in an easier to view size. Click each image to enlarge. Keep in mind these were meant to be viewed much, much smaller.

The image at the top of this post was for "cultural studies."

                                                                       "Business"

 I think this one served double duty on "cookbooks" and "wellness."

"Environment and Science"

"Literature"

"Michigan and the Great Lakes"

"Language"

"Classical Studies"

"World Studies"

There were other categories that I never got to such as "History," "Philosophy" and "Poetry." There were some that were made for categories that ended up being dropped, and one other that I completed for "education," that I can't find the image for.

To see some of the other work I did for Shaman Drum, including the unused images for the dropped categories, look here and here.