Tuesday, October 6, 2026
COLLECTIBLE TIME: SHE'S THE TOPS! 2027 CALENDAR & FLORA T-SHIRT
I ordered a set of wonderful, Rock Baker tie-ins for his romantic, cosmic comic book, She's the Tops!, each produced by Phoenix Solutions (PhoenixSinsStudio).
The She's the Tops! 2027 Pinup Calendar features twelve, glorious months of gorgeous, leading lady Flora in a variety of poses and seasonal scenarios. (This post spotlights a few of the calendar's colorful examples.)
To accompany the calendar, I also obtained a Flora T-shirt, which depicts Baker's enticing extraterrestrial in (what else?) a grand, fetching pose.
I chose black for my shirt (see below image, where the sleeve logo is visible), and for the record, the shirts come in a number of colors, sizes and styles, including long-sleeved and hoodie versions.
Both the calendar and apparel are great ways to celebrate Baker's trailblazing smash. She's the Tops! is here to stay, and the phenomenon is only bound to get bigger. Why not embrace it with a few wise, Etsy purchases?
The calendar is available at
... and the shirts at
BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES: A BROKENSEA AUDIO ADAPTATION
"In the countless billions of galaxies in the universe lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead."
... Paul Dehn (Beneath the Planet of the Apes)
I located and absorbed BrokenSea Audio Productions' Beneath the Planet of the Apes adaptation (see earlier, October post on the troupe's Planet of the Apes 1968 adaptation, as featured on YouTube's Retro Audio Theatre Channel). Alas, the final episode is absent, along with the above proclamation! (Some say the finale was available on The Sonic Society site, but if so, it doesn't live there anymore. God damn it all to hell!)
Nevertheless, the bulk of the saga can be enjoyed, and despite the missing part, it's still worth the indulgence. As with BrokenSea's Planet of the Apes, the standing, eleven episodes of Beneath the Planet of the Apes (holding an approximate, four-hour runtime) was (like the first adventure) penned by Michael Avallone and produced by Bill Hollweg (around 2009) and is based on Paul (Goldfinger) Dehn and Mort Abraham's original, film treatment. This audio version fills in the blaring gaps of the second chapter, in particular Cornelius and Zira's heresy trial, which many fans have pondered over for decades.
As with the initial stretch, Battle for the Planet of the Apes' Lawgiver inserts parable wraparounds, and there are also segments where Milo tinkers with the Icarus (the Liberty 1), matched by behind-the-scenes exchanges on the Forbidden Zone's human mutants and an Escape from the Planet of the Apes mini-chapter with Armando and young Milo/Caesar. As a further bonus, listeners are granted extra time with Taylor and Nova (far more than the movie would allow), even though the brunt of the sequel still falls on Brent. (Throughout the these proceedings, Leonard Rosenman's soundtrack is highlighted, buffered by Jerry Goldsmith's cues, along with a smidgeon of his Patton score, plus Lalo Schifrin's television theme.)
Though I was left in the dark regarding the cast for the Planet of the Apes dramatization, Beneath the Planet of the Apes does attribute actors to the characters, including producer Hollweg as Taylor; Colin Snow and Pete Lutz as Brent; Gwendolyn Jenson-Woodward as Brent's computer; Natasha Lathrop and Lyn Cullen as Zira; Gareth Preston as Dr. Zaius and Armando; Gary Cobbum as Dr. Otto Hasslein (via flashback and confronted by W. Ralph Walters as General George S. Patton); Paul Mannering and Lothar Tuppan as General Ursus; Jack Ward as Milo and Mutant Mendez (Keeper of the Alpha-Omega Bomb)l Shannon Hilche as Mutant Albinial Glen S. Scheetz as Lucius; and Mark Kalita as Cornelius, Milo, Milo/Caesar and the Lawgiver. All do an exceptional job, with most giving their special takes on the characters, though it's worth noting that Kalita impersonates Roddy McDowall to the tee (though I suppose some would say the same of David Watson, who replaced McDowall for the second feature.)
Both audio presentations are honorable homages that Apes fans should celebrate. Alas, in addition to BrokenSea having an evident, tough time getting the final, Beneath the Planet of the Apes episode completed and shared, the company never got to tackle the other sequels. This is a shame, since I can only imagine the greatness that would've been achieved if Escape/Conquest/Battle had been served the same meticulous care.
Nevertheless, what does exist of the company's work is more than worth the pursuit.
Beneath the Planet of the Apes resides at
https://brokensea.com/bpota/page/2/
... and Planet of the Apes at
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIBsd32Virc
Listen, learn and above all, Go Ape!
Monday, October 5, 2026
CASTLE OF FRANKENSTEIN #44: HYDE, KHARIS, ZOMBIES, OBSESSION & SAGEBRUSH SCARES
Wow, oh wow! Castle of Frankenstein #44 is packed with eerie wonderment and all in time for Halloween.
Curry Barker's love-gone-wrong hit, Obsession, is the headliner this time around, with an insightful essay that tells how this innovative venture eclipsed Hollywood's inflated competition.
In addition, there's an outstanding article chronicling television's sagebrush scares, including episodes from The Rifleman, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Wagon Train, Have Gun - Will Travel, Cimmaron Strip, The High Chaparral, The Big Valley, Yancy Derringer, Bronco, Cheyenne, Lawman, Black Saddle, The Alaskans and Death Valley Days.
Readers are also treated to a rundown on the cinematic children of Robert Louis Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde; character actor Darby (I Walked with a Zombie) Jones; an overview of creepy, Spanish chillers; Universal's eternal, Kharis series; Jack Kirby's influence on Full Moon Features; Umberto Lenzi's zombie-fied Nightmare City (City of the Walking Dead); the uproarious, Bela Lugosi/Darby Jones team-up (with Alan Carney & Wally Brown), Zombies on Broadway; Peter Bogdanovich's conscientious, Boris Karloff classic, Targets; and the 1970s, drive-in/UHF staple, Track of the Moon Beast.
As supplements, there's a Valentina von Frankenstein comic strip and a mountain of movie and book reviews.
This 130-pg extravaganza has a bit of everything for everyone ... that is, if one happens to be an ardent, horror fan.
One can purchase Castle of Frankenstein #44 via the below link:
https://www.mymoviemonsters.com/
I SAW LANTERNS
"Evil cannot create anything new; they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made."
Inspired by Tolkien's Middle Earth Lore
The season is done, though my interest in James Gunn/Chris Mundy's Lanterns pretty much died after Episode 3. (Yeah, Episode 4, the "weenie" one, was a decent bump up, but the putridity of the prior installment was so strong, so cutting, that it eclipsed the rebound's potential.)
The season started off as subdued as I suspected, but (surprise surprise) entrenched with Hal Jordan left shot-in-the-head dead. We then got the flashback (time-tripping) thing to fill in the gaps, wrapped in a confined, DC blanket, in sync with the gentle-flowing Smallville, enhanced by a Streets of San Francisco/The Greatest American Hero/Wonder Man teacher/friend/mentor bent. Okay, fine. Swell. This would pave the way for John Stewart's ascent, I presumed, but it didn't take long before things had to go and get cute, and nothing was quite the same after that, no matter how earnest, offbeat, consoling or noble the murder mystery got.
The big snag struck when Stewart's dad lost his ring-bearing chance by confessing his fear, and that admittance was twisted into another big-time, self-righteous blame game, which under any other circumstances may have been acceptable, maybe even identifiable, but for Lanterns, it was nothin' short of blabberin', myth-bustin' bull. (The down-the-line "reconciliation" between Hal and John's mother, was, well, nice in an unforeseen way, but never detailed as well as it could've been to patch the wound.)
Stewart Sr. should've rebutted Laura Linney's Guardian Liana (i.e. her haughty rejection of his fear) by declaring that fear can be a means to an end, as long as one saddles up and gets the job done. It's something John Wayne once said, you know, and it makes sense, but instead we were dealt all this boo-hoo lament, laden with a shameless, Fear Strikes Out steal, as opposed to a lesson that weak-knees could savor.
It's a shame things swerved the way they did, since the casting here (in my humble estimation) hit the mark. Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan (whether accepted as genuine, a decoy or Automan ghost) and Aaron Pierre's Stewart Jr. (and his protective, uber-expensive, forty-arks proposal) felt right, even if the show's leads weren't all-the-way faithful to their traditional, comic-book counterparts.
And then we had Nathan Fillion/Guy Gardner's guest spots (still worth a mention, even if some will say they're not) and Ulrich Thomsen's Arkham-ish-imprisoned Sinestro, though the series needed more of both wayward personas to make their insertions count.
Sinestro, in particular, should've been at the constant, adversarial hub, instead of all that misdirecting, non-Martian Manhunters teasing, which to a degree was compelling, but alas, little was clarified or cemented to resonate at full throttle, even with Cary Christopher's big, Noah reveal and prior to such, Porna Jagannathan's Zoe swaggering in to rescue Kelly MacDonald's Kerry Kane. I mean, in a mere blink, even that strident turn went ka-boom! So much for the tiering clues and melodramatic motivation that would press a staggering finale, not to mention who the hell's good or bad, and damn it, folks, which end is up.
Ah, well. So comes and goes another controversial, live-action, DC ride and as luck would have it, right on the heels of the ill-fated Supergirl (2026). For now, I've no more to say on Lanterns, so I'll let the shrewd JesterBell (aka Female Bilbo Baggins) pick up the reins with one of her early, though still relevant, denouncements. Yep, she sure tells it like it is.🏮
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