POP-A-LOOZA: The Comic Book Telephone Pitches, Part 1

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is the first of two reminiscences about the times I dialed up comic book companies and tried to get work, "The Comic Book Telephone Pitches, Part 1."

Although I've sold prose fiction to the good folks at AHOY Comics, I never did get around to writing comics professionally. Some of my abortive attempts to do so have been examined on this blog: DC Comics, Marvel Comics, The Green Hornet (a teaser blurb and some initial script pages), and my own character Jack Mystery. Getting back to prose, I wrote a Batman short story, the start of a Wonder Woman short story, a DC Comics Crisis fantasy called "The Loveable Lunkhead Returns," and the first five chapters of an original novel, Eternity Man! And, of course, there are the connected short stories I've sold to AHOY: "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid," "The Copperhead Strikes!," and "The Copperhead Affair," plus the recently-published "Chaos At The Copperhead Club," discussed here but not yet available to share on the blog. For humor, there's also my foul-mouthed sci-fi rock 'n' roll farce "Guitars Vs. Rayguns," and a bunch of unsold stories: "Home Of The Hits," "Pop Friction," "Sword Of The Chosen One," "Montie Pylon Finds His Holy Grail," "The Greatest Thud Never Heard," and "Dreaming Deadly."

"Chaos At The Copperhead Club," illustration by Ed Catto

For now, we turn the clock back a few decades to the first of a couple of stories about me calling comic book people and saying, "HIRE ME!" "The Comic Book Telephone Pitches, Part 1" is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

POP-A-LOOZA: Captain Marvel Adventures?

With one magic word--SHAZAM!--young Billy Batson is transformed into the World's Mightiest Mortal: CAPTAIN MARVEL!

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a wish for what I'd like to see in comic book (and other) stories starring the original Captain Marvel: "Captain Marvel Adventures?"

As a comic book fan and a would-be writer, I've often imagined how I might like to see new heroic adventures play out. Some of the notions involved existing characters like Captain Marvel, Batman, Spider-Man, The Green Hornet, The Justice Society of America, and others featured my own creations. Here are a few notions (and one complete Batman story) that made their way to my blog:

Aquaman and Batman by DC Comics great Jim Aparo

BATMAN AND AQUAMAN: The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze [complete]

BATMAN AND WONDER WOMAN: Paradise Does Not Believe In Tears [introductory scene only, without the heroes]

BATMAN MEETS THE MONKEES

SPIDER-MAN: Marvel Comics Try-Out

THE JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA: The Movie

THE GREEN HORNET '66: The Beat And The Sting teaser and introductory pages

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD: A 12-issue series of Batman team-ups [teaser and blueprint]

MY FAILED ATTEMPTS TO WRITE FOR DC COMICS

THE TELEPHONE PITCHES: Harvey Comics and The Mighty Crusaders, and The Monkees

And my own people:

The JACK MYSTERY Story

ETERNITY MAN! chapters 1 through 5

The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid

The Copperhead Strikes!

My pulp hero The Copperhead, depicted by artist Shane White

(There's also my secret agent story "The Copperhead Affair," discussed here when it hit comic book stores in 2020. The introductory paragraphs of a follow-up story "Chaos At The Copperhead Club" were posted here.)

And what the hell, some attempts to write and draw:

THE SNOWMAN

AGENT 690: Man Of ACTION!

HERO

ADVENTURE!! And my idea of the Captain Marvel adventures I'd like to see provides the subject for the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

CAPTAIN MARVEL SAVES THE DAY! Art by Alex Ross

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)will contain 165 essays about 165 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1). My weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! video rants can be seen in my GREM! YouTube playlist. And I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

POP-A-LOOZA: Superpulp Paperbacks!

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is my reminiscence about discovering pulp and superhero paperback novels as a teenager in the '70s: Superpulp Paperbacks!

It's within the realm of plausible possibility that I love books even more than I love records. Do not even try to make me choose between them. I'll be sharing a few other tales of my affection for pulps, fiction, and books in general over at Pop-A-Looza in the near future. In the mean time, you can have a look back at my introductions to Doc Savage and The Shadow, and my history of reading movie tie-in novelizations.

I've also tried my hand at writing superhero pulp, and I've been pleased with the results. For this blog, I wrote a fanfic Batman pulp short called "The Undersea World Of Mr. Freeze," and began a tentative (and uncompleted) next chapter called "Paradise Does Not Believe In Tears." I wrote and sold a Western called "The Last Ride Of The Copperhead Kid" and a 1930s masked vigilante adventure called "The Copperhead Strikes!" (which repurposed part of the opening from my Batman story). I also wrote and sold a 1965-set secret agent story called "The Copperhead Affair," which has not yet posted here (but may still be available at your local comic book store, in the pages of AHOY Comics' Second Coming: Only Begotten Son # 1). 

Straying a bit more afield of classic pulp, I started writing another Copperhead-connected short story set at a punk rock club in the early '80s ("Chaos At The Copperhead Club") and a rock 'n' roll time travel superhero novel called Eternity Man! Both of those projects remain unfinished and abandoned...for the time being.

But right now, we go back to where a lot of this began for me. My superpulp paperbacks are the subject of the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)will contain 165 essays about 165 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1). My weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! video rants can be seen in my GREM! YouTube playlist. And I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

A Boppin' Little Place (Where Music Played)

In the aftermath of yesterday's celebration of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do)'s first anniversary, let's review the music we would have heard in our imaginary nightclub.

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

The evening's first DJ was Riff Randell:

THE RAMONES: Rock 'n' Roll High School
THE MC5: High School
THE FLIRTATIONS: Nothing But A Heartache
THE RASPBERRIES: Go All The Way
THE KINGSMEN: Louie Louie
AMY RIGBY: Dancing With Joey Ramone
SMOKEY ROBINSON & THE MIRACLES: Tears Of A Clown
THE SELECTER: On My Radio
SUZI QUATRO: I May Be Too Young
THE CARRIE NATIONS: Look On Up At The Bottom
JAMES BROWN: Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
THE KINKS: Dedicated Follower Of Fashion
RICK JAMES: Give It To Me Baby
THE FLASHCUBES: All Over The World
THE FLASHCUBES: Born To Cry



Our first live entertainment was provided by The Ladies Aid Society, a special supergroup with Prince (guitar, vocals), Janis Joplin (vocals), Keith Richards (guitar), Buck Owens (guitar, vocals), Louis Armstrong (trumpet, vocals on "Wonderful World"), Jenny Woo (bass, vocals), Susan Cowsill (vocals, tambourine, guitar), Toots Hibbert (vocals), Lionel Hampton (vibes), Jughead Jones (drums), Brian Wilson (vocals, keyboard), with The Memphis Horns and The Shangri-Las:

Piece Of My Heart
I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man
Raise A Hand
Shake A Tail Feather
Suffragette City [with David Bowie]
Raspberry Beret
Down On Me
Wonderful World
Let's Go Crazy
Combination Of The Two
Good Vibrations
Pressure Drop
Happy
She Said To Me
I've Got A Tiger By The Tail
Sugar Sugar [with Archie Andrews and Wilson Pickett]
Flying Home
Eternity Man
Leader Of The Pack
When Doves Cry
Me & Bobby McGee
Medley: Fight The Power/God Save The Queen [with Jimi Hendrix]
Encore:
Ladies Aid Society [with Davy Jones]
Mercedes Benz
1999
Shine On You Crazy Diamond [with Syd Barrett]



The next DJ was Ronnie Dark, host of The Wax Museum on WVOA-FM:

THE HOLLIES: Jesus Was A Crossmaker
THE MONKEES: Regional Girl
CHEAP TRICK: Surrender
YES: Long Distance Runaround
THE KINKS: Sunny Afternoon
STYX: Kiss Your Ass Goodbye
P.P. ARNOLD: The First Cut Is The Deepest
THE DAMNATION OF ADAM BLESSING: Last Train To Clarksville
DOLENZ, JONES, BOYCE & HART: Moonfire
PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS: I'm Not Your Stepping Stone
BROTHERHOOD: Destination Unknown
PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS: Beatnik Sticks
PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS: In My Community
PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS: Just Like Me
THE RAIDERS: The Boys In The Band



The Monkees (Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith) followed:

Last Train To Clarksville
Sunny Girlfriend
Valleri
I Don't Think You Know Me
Porpoise Song
Nine Times Blue
(Look Out) Here Comes Tomorrow
For Pete's Sake
Birth Of An Accidental Hipster
All Of Your Toys
You And I
Oh My My [dedicated to Brenda Nuremberg-Cafarelli]
Solitary Man [with Neil Diamond]
The Boat That I Row [with Lulu]
Make Something Happen [with Gary Frenay and Marshall Crenshaw]
Love Is Only Sleeping
Words
Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again
You Bring The Summer
The Door Into Summer
She Hangs Out
Time And Time Again
As We Go Along
Sometime In The Morning
What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?
Encore:
Listen To The Band
Pleasant Valley Sunday
(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone
Second Encore:
Me & Magdalena
Love To Love
Naked Persimmon
Circle Sky
Third Encore:
Daydream Believer
You Just May Be The One
The Girl I Knew Somewhere
A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You



Jenny Woo, bassist for The Dustbunnies and granddaughter of Eternity Man, has a story that's yet to be told. Nonetheless, she brought a stack of records to play for her stint in the DJ booth:

LITTLE RICHARD: Jenny, Jenny
THE KINKS: Who'll Be The Next In Line
DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TICH: Hold Tight
THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Summer Breeze
EDDIE COCHRAN: Somethin' Else
THE SEX PISTOLS: Pretty Vacant
KISS: Shout It Out Loud
THE RICH KIDS: Rich Kids
THE YARDBIRDS: Evil Hearted You
THE NEW YORK DOLLS: Babylon
TELEVISION: Elevation
THE DIXIE CUPS: Iko Iko
IGGY & THE STOOGES: Gimme Danger
WHAM!: Freedom
THE TOYS: May My Heart Be Cast Into Stone
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS: (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding?

On stage next was The Otis Redding Band:

I Can't Turn You Loose
Day Tripper [with John Lennon]
Behind The Wall Of Sleep [with Pat Dinizio and Jim Babjak]
To Love Somebody [with The Bee Gees]
Sweet Soul Music [with Arthur Conley and Graham Parker]
Soul Meeting [with Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett, Ben E. King, Sharon Jones, and Joe Tex]
Respect [with Aretha Franklin]
Pounds & Hundreds
Hard To Handle
Suspicious Minds [with Elvis Presley and Elvis Costello]
I've Been Loving You Too Long
Try A Little Tenderness
Tramp [with Carla Thomas]
Ballad Of El Goodo [with Alex Chilton]
Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay
It's A Man's Man's Man's World [with James Brown]
Encore:
Satisfaction
Pain In My Heart
Mr. Pitiful
You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling
Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)
When You Were Mine [with Prince]
Second Encore:
I'm A Believer [with Micky Dolenz]
Break On Through [with Jim Morrison]
Feeling Stronger Every Day
Third Encore:
That's How Strong My Love Is
I've Got Dreams To Remember
Everybody Needs Somebody To Love [with Solomon Burke and Mick Jagger]
Fourth Encore:
All Along The Watchtower [with Jimi Hendrix]



John Lennon took his turn as a DJ:

ELVIS PRESLEY: All Shook Up
ARTHUR ALEXANDER: Anna (Go To Him)
THE FOUR TOPS: It's The Same Old Song
THE RAMONES: I Believe In Miracles
THE B-52'S: Rock Lobster
YOKO ONO: Kiss Kiss Kiss
THE KINKS: Come Dancing
ELTON JOHN: Philadelphia Freedom
HARRY NILSSON: Daybreak
CHUCK BERRY: Johnny B. Goode
BUDDY HOLLY: Peggy Sue
PAUL McCARTNEY: Coming Up
THE EVERLY BROTHERS: Gone Gone Gone
RAY CHARLES: What'd I Say
DAVID BOWIE: Rebel Rebel



Then it was time for the house band, as The Kinks (Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Peter Quaife, and Mick Avory) took their glorious turn:

You Really Got Me
This Man He Weeps Tonight
Stop Your Sobbing [with Chrissie Hynde]
Tired Of Waiting For You
Living On A Thin Line
The Village Green Preservation Society
Juke Box Music
Love Me Till The Sun Shines
I Took My Baby Home
I Need You
Death Of A Clown
All Day And All Of The Night
I'm In Disgrace
One Of The Survivors
Where Have All The Good Times Gone
Susannah's Still Alive
Lola [partial]
Muswell Hillbilly
Lola [partial]
(A) Face In The Crowd
Lola
Sunny Afternoon
Working At The Factory
Better Things
Encore:
Days
No More Looking Back
You Can't Stop The Music
See My Friends
Second Encore:
Victoria
Apeman
Animal Farm
I'm Not Like Everybody Else
Third Encore:
David Watts
Sleepwalker
This Is Where I Belong
Fourth Encore:
You Really Got Me [reprise]
Waterloo Sunset



You can't have guest DJs and not invite Joey Ramone:

THE SEARCHERS: Needles And Pins
THE RONETTES: Be My Baby
THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Any Way You Want It
WRECKLESS ERIC & AMY RIGBY: Do You Remember That
THE DUSTBUNNIES: Rocket To Russia
BLODWYN PIG: See My Way
THE RATTLERS: Livin' Alone
THE DICKIES: Rosemary
THE BAY CITY ROLLERS: Wouldn't You Like It
HOLLY & THE ITALIANS: Tell That Girl To Shut Up
THE DRIFTERS: On Broadway
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: I Only Want To Be With You
THE WHO: Substitute
THE KINKS: She's Got Everything
HERMAN'S HERMITS: A Must To Avoid



The night's second supergroup was literally super-powered. Few realized that Captain Marvel, the world's mightiest mortal, was also an accomplished guitarist with a style that's been compared to Hendrix (albeit misspelled as "Hendricks"). Cap gathered some comics pals to perform as The Shazam, though he was unable to say the band's name without turning back into young newscaster Billy Batson. The Shazam consisted of Cap and noted superhero sidekick (and former pop star) Rick Jones on guitars, fashion model Friday Foster on vocals, Mandrake the Magician's best friend Lothar on drums, Wendy the Good Little Witch on bass (really her magic broom, using spells to create a melodic boom boom boom), and teen socialite Veronica Lodge of The Archies on keyboards and backing vocals:

Purple Haze
Thunder And Lightning
Rich Girl
Magic
I Put A Spell On You
Nobody Loves The Hulk [vocal by Rick Jones]
"Heroes"
Jingle Jangle [with Betty Cooper]
Pretty Baby
Vogue
Rescue Me
The Word
Highest Trails Above
Encore:
(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear
Girl, You Have Magic Inside You [with Mary Marvel and The Scarlet Witch]
Comic Book Heroes/I'm Your Superman [with Rick Springfield]



Paul Armstrong took over the DJ booth, and took no prisoners:

MOTT THE HOOPLE: All The Way From Memphis
THE NEW YORK DOLLS: Trash
THE KINKS: Destroyer
KISS: Detroit Rock City
THE ROMANTICS: In The Nighttime
STATUS QUO: Rockin' All Over The World
THE RASPBERRIES: I'm A Rocker
THE RUNAWAYS: School Days
CHRIS SPEDDING: Motorbikin'
THE JAM: In The City
THE SEX PISTOLS: Bodies
CHEAP TRICK: I Know What I Want
THE FACES: Stay With Me
THE MOVE: Do Ya
IGGY & THE STOOGES: I Got A Right



As the sound of "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly" filled the club, four shadowy figures appeared on stage. And that voice took over the room: "HEY! We're The Ramones, and this one's called "Rockaway Beach! Take it, Dee Dee!"1-2-3-4!:

Rockaway Beach
Blitzkrieg Bop
Oh Oh I Love Her So
Carbona Not Glue
I Just Want To Have Something To Do
I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend [with Les McKeown]
Touring
Babysitter
Rocket To Russia [with Jenny Woo]
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
Do You Wanna Dance
I Believe In Miracles
Indian Giver
I Don't Want To Grow Up
In The Park
Don't Come Close
I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement
I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You
Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
I Wanna Live
Judy Is A Punk
Beat On The Brat
I Got You, Babe [with Debbie Harry]
Warthog
Swallow My Pride
Cretin Hop
Commando
I Can't Make It On Time
Censorshit
Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World
Surfin' Bird
R.A.M.O.N.E.S. [with Lemmy]
Pinhead
Encore:
I Wanna Be Sedated
California Sun
Come On Now
Loudmouth
Teenage Lobotomy
Glad To See You Go
She's The One



Paul McCartney wasn't about to let John Lennon be the only Beatle DJ:

ELVIS PRESLEY: Blue Moon Of Kentucky
LITTLE RICHARD: Lucille
BUDDY HOLLY: Love's Made A Fool Of You
THE BEACH BOYS: God Only Knows
ARTHUR ALEXANDER: Soldier Of Love
THE KINKS: Dandy
JOHN LENNON: Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
KLAATU: California Jam
THE MOODY BLUES: Go Now!
STEVIE WONDER: I Was Made To Love Her
THE JAM: That's Entertainment!
BADFINGER: We're For The Dark
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: Son Of A Preacher Man
ARETHA FRANKLIN: Think
THE BYRDS: We'll Meet Again



And then it was The Flashcubes' turn to raise the motherlovin' roof:

It's You Tonight
She's Leaving
When We Close Our Eyes
A Face In The Crowd
Social Mobility
On The Run
No Promise
Pathetic
Mr. Acarius
She Couldn't Say No
Wait Till Next Week
Hello Suzie [with Roy Wood]
Sound Of The Radio
I'm Not The Liar [with The Shangri-Las]
Christi Girl
She [with Micky Dolenz]
Gone Too Far [with Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork]
Natalie
Sold Your Heart
Nothing Really Matters When You're Young
My Little Angel
Five Personalities [with Norm Mattice]
Do Anything You Wanna Do
Encore:
Got No Mind
I Can't Let Go
Destiny's Plaything
Welcome To The Working Class
Second Encore:
Stop! In The Name Of Love
You For Me
You're Not The Police
Angry Young Man
Third Encore:
Rawhide
Hold Me Tight



Little Steven emerged from his Underground Garage long enough to DJ a tribute to Dana & Carl's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilations:

THE TEARJERKERS: Syracuse Summer
JOHN WICKS & THE RECORDS: Edges Of A Dream
STEVE STOECKEL & HIS THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO ALL-STARS: I Could Be Good For You
MR. ENCRYPTO: The Last Time [a cappella]
THE FINKERS: Last Thing On My Mind
ANNY CELSI: Empty Hangers
EYTAN MIRSKY: I'm Losing You
MANNIX: Highway Lines
THE GRIP WEEDS: Every Minute
UNCLE GREEN: I Don't Wanna Know About It
LISA MYCHOLS: Cactus Boy
MICHAEL CARPENTER: I've Been Loving You
BEAUTY SCENE OUTLAWS: Carl Cafarelli
THE FLASHCUBES: Carl (You Da Man)
And one from the TIRnRR house band:
THE KINKS: Everybody's Gonna Be Happy



And only The Beatles could close the show:

Twist And Shout
Come Together
Things We Said Today
If I Needed Someone
She Said She Said
We Can Work It Out
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Help!
Can't Buy Me Love
Acoustic Set:
I Don't Want To Spoil The Party
For No One
Here Comes The Sun
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
I've Just Seen A Face
Give Me Love
Norwegian Wood
Blackbird
Yellow Submarine
If I Fell
Yesterday
A Day In The Life
Plugged In:
Revolution
Helter Skelter
What Is Life
Gimme Some Truth
Live And Let Die
Photograph
Lady Madonna
Hey Bulldog
Something
Don't Pass Me By
Maybe I'm Amazed
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Penny Lane
Eleanor Rigby
The Night Before
No Reply
I Me Mine
Instant Karma!
It Don't Come Easy
I'm Down
I Feel Fine
Paperback Writer
Think For Yourself
I Want To Hold Your Hand
Another Girl
Encore:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With A Little Help From My Friends
Ticket To Ride
A Hard Day's Night
I Saw Her Standing There
Strawberry Fields Forever
Second Encore:
She Loves You
Martha My Dear
I Want To Tell You
Octopus' Garden
Rain
Third Encore:
Polythene Pam
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
Fourth Encore:
Let It Be
Give Peace A Chance



With the live performances concluded, Dana & Carl supplied the ending house music:

THE RAMONES: Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?
THE KINKS: Till The End Of The Day
THE BEVIS FROND: He'd Be A Diamond
BADFINGER: Baby Blue
TODD RUNDGREN: Couldn't I Just Tell You
THE PRETENDERS: Back On The Chain Gang
BONEY M: My Friend Jack
THE SMALL FACES: Tin Soldier
THE OHIO EXPRESS: Had To Be Me
MARY LOU LORD: Aim Low
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: Rock And Roll
TRANSLATOR: Everywhere That I'm Not
EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year
SUGAR: If I Can't Change Your Mind
THE STALLIONS: Why
BIG STAR: September Gurls

A lot of music for just one night? Well, time moves differently inside the club. There's always enough time, plenty of time to do anything and enjoy everything you ever wished that time would allow. Why, right after The Beatles have packed up and Dana & Carl have put away their records, there's still more music about to start anew. Always on. Always here. Always alive.

If you weren't there...well, you were there. I saw you. You were smiling. You were singing along with every word, every note.  You were dancing to that fine, fine music. And it was all right.

UNFINISHED AND ABANDONED: The Notebook Notions, Part 3: If The '70s Were The '40s, starring Captain Marvel, The Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, and The Justice Society Of America. [Plus The Shadow. And The Beatles.]

Unfinished And Abandoned digs deeeeep into my unpublished archives, and exhumes projects that I started (sometimes barely started) but abandoned, unfinished. I am such a quitter.

When I was a fledgling teen-aged writer, I filled notebook after notebook with vague notions of things I might like to write some day.  The Notebook Notions is a series of backwards glances at those early glimmers of almost-ideas.

The '30s and '40s were big in the '70s.  I'm not sufficiently well-versed in history or sociology to know precisely when nostalgia began to play a role in contemporary pop culture, but the wistful 'n' longing gaze back at times gone by had certainly taken a pervasive hold by the mid- to late-'60s.  In the 1970s, nostalgia was everywhere, man.

When I was an adolescent to early teenager in the early '70s, my Mom used to joke that I was born in the wrong decade.  Given my then-current obsession with Charlie Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, and World War II-era superheroes, it would be hard to debate her point.  I guess it started in fourth grade, when I developed a sudden, keen interest in World War II. Over the next few years, this dovetailed with a growing awareness of the movies and the comic books of decades past, an awareness fed by late-night TV screenings of the Brothers Marx in Duck Soup and Horse Feathers, by theatrical re-releases of Charlie Chaplin's City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator--in 1972, I was the only twelve-year-old in America with a crush on Paulette Goddard--and by a flood of Golden Age comic book reprints.

Much credit for the latter must go to Carmine Infantino, the great comics artist who was then in charge of DC Comics. Marvel Comics had recently surpassed DC in popularity, and Infantino was looking for new ways to compete. Infantino had a veritable treasure trove of previously-published material at his disposal, stuff that was long since bought and paid for, and he wanted to exploit that (essentially free) catalog as much as possible. E. Nelson Bridwell was the single person most involved in selecting used comics for DC to sell again, and he did an exemplary job in this largely thankless task. It was, frankly, a misguided effort to recapture market share--reprints of Boy Commandos and Newsboy Legion were not going to steal any discernible readership from Marvel--but I know there was at least one kid in North Syracuse who couldn't get enough of this.

Um. That would be me. Just to be clear.






Concurrent to Infantino's desperate mission to raid DC's archives, there was also a greater embrace of old comics within a broader nostalgic context. There was a sudden growth industry in books--like, hardcover books at the local bookstore--focused on comics from decades passed.  Crown Books published a couple of retrospective collections, Superman From The '30s To The '70s and Batman From The '30s To The '70s, and Ms. magazine sponsored a Wonder Woman book; all three of these contained pages and pages and pages of vintage comics reprints. Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes (published in 1965, but a bookstore staple in the early '70s) combined Feiffer's wonder-filled recollections of being a comics fan in the '30s and '40s with a choice selection of key reprints. All In Color For A Dime, edited by Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson, and Steranko's two-part History Of The Comics included no comics at all, but were just as inspirational for their spirited essays on '30s and '40s comics, and for the gorgeous comics art reprinted in each.



The collective result of all of the above? I was just as into old comics as I was into the great contemporary comics work that Jack Kirby or Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams were doing at the time. I read Charlie Chaplin's My Autobiography the same summer that I saw Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal in What's Up, Doc? (itself a throwback to old screwball comedies), and I attended my first screening at the Syracuse Cinephile Society before I'd even seen a James Bond movie at Cinema North in Mattydale. Old. New. This affected some of my notions.




The Further Adventures Of Captain Marvel movie serial

I recently wrote all about How I Became A Captain Marvel fan. The 1941 movie serial The Adventures Of Captain Marvel played an enormous role in my burgeoning interest in all things Shazam, so I decided to write a sequel.

What's that? Movie serials were long dead by the era of Watergate? Tom Tyler, the actor who'd played the World's Mightiest Mortal in the '40s, passed away in 1954? A mid-'70s Captain Marvel movie serial was a silly, silly fantasy?

Oh, you and your real-world thinking! Such mundane, practical limitations aren't even speed bumps on the path of a truly dedicated, delusional Notebook Notion!

The thing is, while I didn't bother addressing the fact that no one would be interested in an old-fashioned black-and-white chapter play in 1974, I did justify (to myself) how a young Tom Tyler could star in this hypothetical waste of time. In my mind, I figured that advances in digital technology and computer magic would someday allow filmmakers to manipulate existing images, essentially using special effects to make brand-new movies starring W.C. Fields or Marilyn Monroe. My fanciful vision of this process imagined a seamless, realistic end result: for example, Humphrey Bogart in Return Of The Maltese Falcon would be visually and virtually indistinguishable from Bogie in his original role as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon.

Nonsense? Yeah, probably. Though, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if something like this became possible in our lifetime. We've already seen a hint of it in TV commercials for Snickers candy bars, which blend existing footage of Marilyn Monroe or the cast of The Brady Bunch with new footage. It's still a long jump from mixing and integrating old footage with new footage to manipulating old images to create all new footage (and the moral quandary that may present). But impossible?  For now.

Anyway. I envisioned The Further Adventures Of Captain Marvel as a time-spanning epic pitting the World's Mightiest Mortal against the insidious Dr. What. Why What? Wait...what? Sorry...confused myself for a second there. For whatever reason, I didn't want to use an existing Captain Marvel villain like Dr. Sivana, nor re-use The Scorpion from the first Captain Marvel serial, and I liked the comic-book sound of the name Dr. What.  I don't believe I had ever heard of Dr. Who by this point in my life, but I'll concede the possibility.

I had Chapter One written; details are fuzzy, but I think Dr. What travels back in time from his far-future home in 1965 to loot and steal and otherwise be a bad guy in the 1940s. I'm sure he has his reasons, and I betcha they're evil reasons, the swine! Intrepid young reporter Billy Batson witnesses Dr. What in the commission of a criminal act, and uses his magic word to call upon the power of Captain Marvel. Our hero confronts Dr. What, confident that the wisdom of Solomon, strength of Hercules, and the other fine properties that come with the letters that spell out SHAZAM would be more than capable of making short work of this thief.

But Dr. What is ready for Captain Marvel! The sinister time-traveler is armed with a super-scientific gizmo from the world of tomorrow; he fires his mysterious weapon at our hero, and--in a blaze of light and a haze of smoke and sulphur--Captain Marvel is gone!  The World's Mightiest Mortal has disappeared without a trace! Has Dr. What succeeded in destroying the mighty Captain Marvel? Don't miss "Silver Bullets," the next exciting chapter in The Further Adventures Of Captain Marvel, at this theater next week!

I got about half-way through writing the next chapter, "Silver Bullets," before coming to my senses and moving on to something else. In Chapter Two, we learn that Dr. What's weapon hasn't killed Captain Marvel, but has sent him back in time, to the days of the Old West. There, Captain Marvel meets The Lone Ranger and Tonto, and enlists their aid in returning to his own time. My use of The Lone Ranger was inspired by a letter I'd read in a recent issue of Justice League of America, requesting that The Masked Rider Of The Plains be inducted into the JLA.  And yes, just about everyone would think that an absurd idea, but I was instantly taken by the incongruity of a 19th century cowboy crimefighter joining forces with contemporary superheroes. A little while later, when a series of stories in Marvel's The Avengers showed the Earth's Mightiest Heroes traveling through time to meet The Rawhide Kid, The Two-Gun Kid, and Kid Colt, no one cheered more loudly than this guy.



I have no idea how my story for The Further Adventures Of Captain Marvel would have progressed. But I tell ya: far from being embarrassed by the absurd concepts I was pursuing, I'm still kinda jazzed about it. I could see it as a cross-licensed comic book, combining not only Captain Marvel and The Lone Ranger, but also Tarzan, Buck Rogers, and more. I've even toyed with altering it to a story with just DC Comics properties: Captain Marvel, the Western hero Johnny Thunders, Rima the Jungle Girl, Space Ranger, the Camelot-era hero The Silent Knight, the Revolutionary War character Miss Liberty, and Phantom Girl from the 30th century's Legion of Super-Heroes.  And the story was in the back of my mind as I started writing ETERNITY MAN!, my rock 'n' roll super-hero novel.

 


The Justice Society Of America radio show

Sure, this one I finished (though I haven't seen it in decades). Spurred by the books All In Color For A Dime and Steranko's History Of The Comics, I spent a lot of time drawing fake covers for an imaginary revival of All-Star Comics, the comic book that had been the home of The Justice Society of America in the '40s and early '50s. I was dyin' to read one of the original JSA stories from the '40s, and was just over the moon when my wish was granted in 1973: DC 100-Page Super-Spectacular # 17 reprinted the Justice Society's first skirmish with The Injustice Society of the World, originally printed in All-Star Comics # 37 in 1947.

Seeking to try something different, I combined my infatuation with the 1940s JSA with my love of old-time radio, and with my unconscious wish to start a new religion honoring The Batman's '70s stories, as created by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams. And I wrote a full script for an imaginary Justice Society Of America radio show.




Trust me:  it was terrible. But, I was enthusiastic! Since DC Comics had recently licensed The Shadow for a new comics series (which I loved), I decided to have The Shadow join forces with the JSA in this adventure. My memory has erased all specifics--probably as a mercy--but I think this radio adventure featured a rematch with The Injustice Gang, and I'm sure I included The Joker; I was obsessed with The Joker's dark, murderous return in "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge!" in Batman # 251 (September 1973), so it was for damned sure I would pit The Joker against The JSA, The Shadow, and The Batman.



 

The Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin in From Here To Infernity
The Marx Brothers and The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night At The Opera [working title]

Getting back once again to the idea of new movies starring digital recreations of old movie stars, I had a very vague idea to team Charlie Chaplin with Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo, and Gummo--I was a stickler!--in a film variously called From Here To Infernity or From Here To Internity.  I don't remember if it was supposed to be a war comedy (like Duck Soup and The Great Dictator) or a medical comedy (like the operating scene in A Day At The Races).  I only remember that Groucho's character was to be called Gladiola Mosquitobite.  I later amended the idea (without doing any actual writing, mind you) to replace Chaplin with The Beatles, perhaps in a cross between A Night At The Opera and A Hard Day's Night.  This notion never got past drawings of potential movie posters.  It shouldn't even have gotten that far.

But I wonder: would Paulette Goddard have been interested?