Pop Culture Safari!

CD new releases March 4, 2008

Replicas Redux by Gary Numan & Tubeway Army

Early Bobby Darin by Bobby Darin

Stronger by Carlene Carter

Touch of Gold/Wild Night by Johnny Rivers

Real Emotional Trash by Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks

Vintage Doctor Who newspaper article

I love this photo, found in the Feb. 5, 1964, issue of Britain's Daily Express.

New action figures

Here's a list of recently released and upcoming action figures. Click links to order from Amazon.

Marvel Milestones 2008 Captain America Statue

Marvel Milestones Zombies Spider-Man Vs Venom Statue

Marvel Max Howard The Duck Statue

Robin 13 Inch Collector Figure

Superman/Batman Composite Superman

Superman/Batman Series 5 Joker and Mr. Mxyzpltk

Superman/Batman Series 5 Supergirl

Superman/Batman Series 5 Power Girl

Led Zeppelin will not tour again, reports a source close to singer Robert Plant.

The Sunday Mirror newspaper quotes an anonymous source as saying that the band have turned down a £100 million offer to tour, with Plant’s own non-Led Zeppelin musical plans the reason for the decision.

The newspaper quotes the source as saying: “Despite the enormous offer, the decision did not come down to money. They always said they would do the one-off show and then see how they felt.

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But forget Led Zep, the Rutles are reuniting!

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"Paul McCartney – no, John Lennon – yes. An unusual group, not as rocky as most. More country and western with a tendency to play music. Overall – yes." Learn what BBC programmers really thought of up-and-coming acts they were considering booking for the network's shows.

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See George Carlin on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in 1968.

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What if brilliant designer Saul Bass had done the title sequence for "Star Wars"?

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See the live-action Captain America--on TV in 1966!

Indiana Jones special edition DVDs out May 13

All three Indiana Jones movies will be out in special edition form May 13, along with a box set collecting the whole batch.

"Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" Special Edition DVDs boast all-new, exclusive bonus features.

Here's a look:

The Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark Special Edition DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 2.0 Surround and Spanish 2.0 Surround and English, French and Spanish subtitles. The disc includes the following special features:
-- "Raiders of the Lost Ark": An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas
-- Indiana Jones: An Appreciation--The cast and crew of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" pay tribute to the original trilogy.
-- The Melting Face--A recreation of the amazing physical effect of the villain's melting face in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," including Steven Spielberg and George Lucas commenting on the evolution of visual effects and CGI.
-- Storyboard Sequence--The Well of Souls
-- Galleries
-- Illustrations & Props
-- Production Photographs & Portraits
-- Effects/ILM
-- Marketing
-- "LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures" Game Demo and Trailer

The Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Special Edition DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 2.0 Surround and Spanish 2.0 Surround and English, French and Spanish subtitles. The disc includes the following special features:
-- "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom": An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas
-- Creepy Crawlies--Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Frank Marshall reminisce about snakes, bugs and rats.
-- Locations--Travel across the world to discover where the films take place and where they were shot.
-- Storyboard Sequence--The Mine Cart Chase
-- Galleries
-- Illustrations & Props
-- Production Photographs & Portraits
-- Effects/ILM
-- Marketing
-- "LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures" Game Demo and Trailer

The Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Special Edition DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 2.0 Surround and Spanish 2.0 Surround and English, French and Spanish subtitles. The disc includes the following special features:
-- "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade": An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas
-- The Women: The American Film Institute Tribute--The three Indiana Jones women (Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and Alison Doody) reunite for a discussion.
-- Friends and Enemies--Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Indiana Jones writers discuss how they created the most iconic characters in film history, including a look at new faces in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
-- Storyboard Sequence--The Opening Sequence
-- Galleries
-- Illustrations & Props
-- Production Photographs & Portraits
-- Effects/ILM
-- Marketing
-- "LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures" Game Demo and Trailer

Kevin Conroy to voice Batman again

Kevin Conroy, who provided the voice of Batman on the excellent "Batman: The Animated Series" 'toon and related features will return to the role in the direct-to-DVD animated collection "Batman: Gotham Knight."

The disk features six interwoven Batman tales and ties into the upcoming Batman: The Dark Knight live-action feature.

Lost March 20 preview episode 8, season 4

Highlight the hidden text below for info about the March 20, 2008 episode of "Lost."

See a trailer for the show here (when available) and hear the official "Lost" podcast.

SAYID CONFRONTS BEN'S SPY ON THE FREIGHTER, AND BEN PLEADS WITH DAUGHTER ALEX TO FLEE LOCKE'S CAMP TO SURVIVE AN IMPENDING ATTACK,
ON ABC'S "LOST"
Cynthia Watros Guest Stars as Libby
"Meet Kevin Johnson" - Sayid confronts Ben's spy on the freighter, and Ben urges daughter Alex to flee Locke's camp in order to survive an impending attack, on "Lost," THURSDAY, MARCH 20 (9:00-10:02 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

"Lost" stars Naveen Andrews as Sayid, Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond, Emilie de Ravin as Claire, Michael Emerson as Ben, Matthew Fox as Jack, Jorge Garcia as Hurley, Josh Holloway as Sawyer, Daniel Dae Kim as Jin, Yunjin Kim as Sun, Evangeline Lilly as Kate, Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet, Terry O'Quinn as Locke and Harold Perrineau as Michael.

Guest starring are Cynthia Watros as Libby, M.C. Gainey as Mr. Friendly/Tom, Mira Furlan as Danielle Rousseau, Tania Raymonde as Alex, Blake Bashoff as Karl, Marsha Thomason as Naomi Dorrit, Ken Leung as Miles Straume, Jeff Fahey as Frank Lapidus, Kevin Durand as Keamy, Anthony Azizi as Omar, Fisher Stevens as George Minkowski, Grant Bowler as Captain Gault, Jill Kuramoto as female anchor, Galyn Gorg as nurse, Starletta DuPois as mom, William P. Ogilivie as Gus, Francesco Simone as Arturo and James Locke as mechanic.

"Meet Kevin Johnson" was written by Elizabeth Sarnoff & Brian K. Vaughan and directed by Stephen Williams.

Also see:

Lost Season 4 Episode Guide
The Best Lost Sites on the Web
Lost: What we STILL don't know

Hells Angels planned to kill Mick Jagger, documentary says

A new BBC Radio 4 documentary claims the Hells Angels planned to kill Mick Jagger due to disputes that arose after the motorcycle gang--hired to perform security--killed an audience member during the Rolling Stones' disastrous Altamont show in 1969.

"They were gong to kill him for retribution for firing them," former FBI agent Mark Young told the documentary.

The group that set out to kill the singer were thwarted when their boat almost sank, he added, and they "never went back and reinstituted the plan".

The programme will be broadcast on 11 March at 1545 GMT.

You also should be able to visit the BBC's audio-on-demand site after that date to hear the show.

Pop links

Fred Hembeck has a couple of great new artworks up for auction on eBay: An awesome pic of Batman friends and foes and a motley gathering of Forbush Man, Little Annie Fannie, Alfred E. Neuman and others. Check 'em out!

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Read a 1952 horror tale illustrated by Joe Kubert.

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Read a 1951 werewolf story illustrated by Al Williams.

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The premiere of the CW's "Spectacular Spider-Man" 'toon has been bumped back a week to March 8.

Two episodes of the new Spider-Man series will then debut back-to-back at starting at 10 am (ET, PT).

The...series, which is produced by Sony's Culver Entertainment, features a solid vocal cast led by Josh Keaton (Spidey/Peter Parker), Lacey Chabert (Gwen Stacy), Ben Diskin (Eddie Brock), and Robert (Nightmare on Elm Street, V) Englund (Vulture). The first episode of the series, which is set during Peter Parker's junior year in high school.

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Former Dave Clark 5 singer Mike Smith has passed away.

His death at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, north of London, came just two weeks before the Dave Clark Five was due to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York.

The Dave Clark Five, whose hits included "Glad All Over," "Bits and Pieces" and "Because," were one of the first British bands to find major success in the United States after the Beatles.

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The Dick Tracy Museum in Woodstock, Ill., is shutting down.

The museum guest book hasn't been signed in weeks. The shelves are lined with unsold Dick Tracy pens, yellow fedoras and coffee mugs. And on a recent February morning, a broken furnace kept museum director Jim Johnson shivering until closing time. Only a few visitors stopped by, one of them a repairman who got the heat turned back on.

With attendance plunging, museum officials have decided to close the 1,000-square-foot shrine to the comic-strip detective and his creator -- longtime Woodstock resident Chester Gould. The decision was difficult for Gould's daughter, Jean Gould O'Connell, who said her father's estate could not keep funding it. The doors will close in June.

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Learn to play Beatles tunes from Giles Martin, son of the former Fabs producer George.

Lost clues: "The Constant" Ep. 4, Season 4

Episode summary:

In the chopper on the way the freighter with Frank and Sayid, Desmond experiences some time frame difficulties. He keeps flashing back and forward in consciousness between his 1997 British military self and the present time.

Desmond doesn't remember that he was on the island, or Sayid or anything that happened post '97. He's freaking out.

Once on the ship, he's shut in the sick bay with another man, communications officer George Minkowski who we've heard a few times talking to Naomi over the satellite phone. Minkowski is having the same problem, he keeps flashing back into the past.

Sayid, baffled as to what's going on, manages to trade his gun with Frank (who seems to want to help the crash survivors) in exchange for a satellite phone, which Sayid uses to call Jack on the island.

Once Daniel Faraday hears about how Desmond is freaking out, he gets on the phone to talk to Desmond. Faraday somehow understands what's going on with Desmond. He asks Jack if Desmond has recently been exposed to radiation or a large amount electromagnetic energy (which Desmond was--in the Hatch implosion that resulted in Desmond's seeing-into-the-future abilities).

Faraday asks Desmond where, in time, he is. He tells Desmond that when he flashes back into 1997, he needs to hop on a train and travel to Oxford University to find the 1997 version of Faraday (at this point, my brain started to hurt).

The present-day Faraday gives Desmond some coordinates for a machine to remember, along with the phrase "I know about Eloise." (Eloise turns out to be the '97 Faraday's lab rat, which he's been using for time travel experiments).

Back in 1997, Desmond follows these instructions and the '97 Faraday realizes Desmond is flashing back from the future and attempts to help him. He tells Desmond that he needs to focus on a "constant" in order for his consciousness to find its way into the present time. This constant needs to be something, or someone, that's consistent in both time frames.

Desmond, of course, knows that this constant is his girlfriend Penelope, who happens to be quite mad at him back in 1997. Still, he manages to track her down in that time frame and gets a phone number out of her. He tells her he will call this number in several years. She thinks he's nuts.

Back on the ship, the crew has taken away the satellite phone but Sayid, Minkowski and Desmond manage to sneak up to the radio room (which has been mysteriously vandalized. Nobody on the crew seems to know who's responsible. Ben's "spy"?).

Sayid cobbles together a phone of some sort, powered by a battery and, lo' and behold, Desmond phones the present-time Penelope and everything falls back together. He remembers Sayid, the island, everything that's happened.

The phone conversation is short, but Penelope manages to tell Desmond she loves and has forgiven him, and that she knows about the island, she's been researching it.

Before Desmond makes the call, however, Minkowski dies. His brain is fried by all his shifting backwards and forwards through time. The same thing would've happened to Desmond if Penelope hadn't been his constant.

Back on the island, we see Faraday leafing through his journal. He's written a note to himself. If there's trouble, Desmond will be his "constant."

Questions/clues/observations:

* Someone unlocked the sickbay door so Sayid, Minkowski and Desmond could get up to the radio room. Who was it? Frank? Ben's spy?

* Is Ben's spy someone we know? Namely Michael?

* Back in 1997 searching for Penny, Desmond tracks down her dad Charles Widmore at an auction, in which Widmore has just made a successful bid for a journal belonging to the first mate of the Black Rock--the old slaving ship that's on the island but, as far as the rest of the world knows, was lost at sea. What is Widmore's connection to the Black Rock and the island?

* The auctioneer makes reference to the journal having been previously owned by Tovard Hanso. Alvar Hanso was the founder/funder of the Dharma Initiative. Is Widmore involved in Dharma? It's enemy?

* Does the Black Rock journal contain information about the island?

* Faraday has seemed pretty addled from the get-go. Now it seems as if his sketchiness must be the result of time travel. That and being a physicist. They're all a little nutty. But still... what's he been through? The flashback we saw of him seeing news coverage of the Oceanic crash made it appear he was in bad psychological shape in the past. He'd experienced a breakdown or something and was weeping uncontrollably when he saw the news report, but didn't seem to understand why. It seems he's caught between time lines, much like Desmond was.

* Was the "sickness" that killed off Danielle's people related to this brain-frying time frame confusion?

* In island time, those on the helicopter haven't been heard from in over a day, but the chopper trip to the ship didn't take very long at all. What's the deal with this crazy island time anomaly stuff?

Also see:

Lost Season 4 Episode Guide
The Best Lost Sites on the Web
Lost: What we STILL don't know

DC replacing Archives reprints with "Classics" line

Much to the consternation to those of us collecting those nifty DC Archives hardcovers, the line is being phased out (but they'll complete the run of Will Eisner's "The Spirit," thank goodness).

Here's the new plan:

To replace DC Archives in the collected editions schedule, the company will offer a line of DC Comics Classics Library hardcovers in 2009. "We want to feature classic stories and classic creators in upscale format hardcovers," DC's Georg Brewer said. "The stories have to be older than ten years, cannot be recently collected in hardcover, and aren't a part of an ongoing series."

More details and speculation here.

Don't forget Lost tonight!

Here's a preview for tonight's episode. Be sure to come back here tomorrow for a detailed look at what happened, along with clues and observations.

Also see:

Lost Season 4 Episode Guide
The Best Lost Sites on the Web
Lost: What we STILL don't know

Visit our sister blog: The Mighty Marvelmania Museum

I've decided to start a "picture blog" to share the zillion images of Marvel Comics memorabilia I have accumulated over the years. This new site will be updated fairly regularly.

Check it out here:

The Mighty Marvelmania Museum.

Upcoming books for pop culture fans

Here are new and upcoming books of possible interest to pop culture fans. Click the titles to order them from Amazon.

Scorchy Smith And The Art Of Noel Sickles
Noel Sickles drew comics for three brief years, yet his groundbreaking work on the 1930s aviation adventure series Scorchy Smith is a milestone in the history of newspaper comic strips. Over the past 70 years, however, readers have seen only occasional excerpts of this seminal work. Now, IDW's Library of American Comics presents Scorchy Smith and The Art of Noel Sickles, a comprehensive, oversized volume that collects, for the first time, every Sickles Scorchy strip, from December 1933 through November 1936.

The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
“Every once in a while, moral panic, innuendo, and fear bubble up from the depths of our culture to create waves of destructive indignation and accusation. David Hajdu's fascinating new book tracks one of the stranger and most significant of these episodes, now forgotten, with exactness, clarity, and serious wit, which is the best kind. He illuminates the lives of his protagonists -- from pompous, on-the-make censors to cracked comic book geniuses -- with his own graphic powers, as well as his intense intellectual curiosity. The book is a rarity, vividly depicting a noirish 1950's America but without a trace of irony or nostalgia.” --Sean Wilentz, Professor of History, Princeton University

Betsy and Me by Jack Cole
For Betsy and Me, featuring city dweller Chet Tibbit's day-to-day stuggles and achievements, Cole stripped his style down to its bare essentials, creating a strip that sparkles with economy, wit, and charm. What gave the strip its edge, however, was Cole's innovative storytelling. As R.C. Harvey writes in his introduction, "Cole's storytelling manner was unique: the comedy arose from the pictures' contradicting the narrative prose. Cole's fatuous protagonist and narrator would say one thing in the captions accompanying the drawings, but the pictures of his actions showed the opposite, revealing [him] to be a trifle pretentious and wholly delusional." Harvey's intro also serves as a biographical sketch and sheds light on the circumstances surrounding Cole's suicide.

Alex Raymond: His Life And Art
Complete with a foreword by George Lucas and an introduction by famed artist James Bama, Alex Raymond: His Life and Art delves deep into the history and work of this internationally famous artist, showcasing never-before-known facts and art that transcended the confines of a comic strip page and make him more than the renowned artist of Flash Gordon.

Men's Adventure Magazines
Paying homage to the American periodicals of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s that documented outrageous exploits, this hefty, comprehensive guide is packed full of colorful cover art, sumptuous sample spreads, and enlightening essays.

The Official Batman Batbook: The Revised Bat Edition
The Official Batman Batbook Revised Bat-Edition is the only official guide to the 1966 television series.(The original edition sold over 100,000 copies worldwide) Containing a detailed guide to every episode and the feature film. Obsecure batfacts, trivia, a complete list of Holy Words, Batfight words, BatEquipment. Interviews with cast and crew members. This newly updated edition contains hundreds of new photos, additional facts (like cast salaries), trivia and interviews with guest stars, henchmen, crew members and the producers.

The Avengers: The Inside Story
Patrick Macnee tells all! The secrets of the hit TV series The Avengers are laid bare by the man who was John Steed.

Lavishly illustrated, with many unpublished stills, behind-the-scenes photos, and snaps from Macnee's private collection, this is a very personal portrait of the world's best-loved cult action-adventure series, and its classic sequel, The New Avengers.

In unflinching detail, Macnee reveals the true story behind the show, including his relationships with all four Avengers girls — Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, Linda Thorson and Joanna Lumley — on and off the set!

LOST Ultimate Guide Season III: The Unauthorized Guide to the ABC Hit Series Show LOST Season Three
Oceanic Flight 815 out of Sydney, Australia is mysteriously brought down out of the sky, crashing on an uncharted island somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean. The survivors quickly learn they must band together in order to have any hope of rescue, because the island is treacherous and holds many secrets. As they are about to learn, the survivors also have many secrets of their own! It's clear that ABC's LOST has captivated the minds of TV viewers all around the world. What isn't clear is what it actually means. This guide answers many of the questions you've been asking about ABC's series: LOST. From a complete analysis of the plot and its symbolism to hidden clues within the show, this book provides inside analysis and news that can't be found anywhere else. The book includes a complete summary, interpretation, and analysis for Season Three and unauthorized news. This is quite simply the Ultimate Unofficial Guide to ABC's Hit Series LOST. THIS BOOK INCLUDES: Analysis and Interpretation Predictions Hidden Messages Signs & Symbols Before they were LOST. DISCLAIMER: This book is unofficial and unauthorized. It is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by ABC, Lost, it's producers, writers, distributors, publishers, or licensors. Any use of the trademarks and character names is strictly for the purpose of analysis and news reporting.

The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo Vol. 2
For more than 40 years, Dan DeCarlo was best known for his definitive rendition of Archie Comics' Betty and Veronica, two of comics' most beloved icons.

But before joining Archie in the late 1950s and unbeknownst to many, DeCarlo was already honing his skills as a good girl artist for the Humorama line of digest magazines. Beginning in 1956, DeCarlo created hundreds of pin-up cartoons for titles such as Comedy, Jest, and Laugh Riot, where his line drawings and his exquisite ink-wash paintings shared the pages with pin-ups by Jack Cole, Bill Ward and Bill Wenzel, and photos featuring Bettie Page.

In contrast to the innocence that was Archie's Riverdale, DeCarlo's Humorama pin-ups portrayed a world populated by strippers, gold diggers, buxom secretaries, lecherous bosses, cheating spouses, and even the occasional "spanking daddy." These characters, who often bore an uncanny resemblance to Archie's snooty socialite and perennial girl next door, were clearly having sex and plenty of it.

Following the immensely popular The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo (which was featured in Playboy magazine and quickly sold out its first printing), this second volume once again displays DeCarlo's sexiest Humorama pin-up cartoons, and continues Fantagraphics' dedication to showcasing the best of the classic pin-up cartoonists.

Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats
Like most Americans, Steve Ettlinger eats processed foods. And, like most consumers, he didn’t have a clue as to what most of the ingredients on the labels mean. So when his young daughter asked, “Daddy, what’s polysorbate 60?” he was at a loss—and determined to find out.

From the phosphate mines in Idaho to the oil fields in China, Twinkie, Deconstructed demystifies some of the most common processed food ingredients— where they come from, how they are made, how they are used—and why. Beginning at the source (hint: they’re often more closely linked to rock and petroleum than any of the four food groups), we follow each Twinkie ingredient through the process of being crushed, baked, fermented, refined, and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder—all for the sake of creating a simple snack cake.

An insightful exploration of the modern food industry, if you’ve ever wondered what you’re eating when you consume foods containing mono- and diglycerides or calcium sulfate (the latter a food-grade equivalent of plaster of paris), this book is for you.

Q Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Go behind the scenes of the smash hit television show that just won't die! From its origins as a reviled movie to its seven-year reign on the WB and UPN, Buffy spawned a new generation of vampire lovers.

Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films
"There are two kinds of academic texts: the kind that contains photographs of Ursula Andress wearing a bikini, and the kind that do not. Licence to Thrill falls, fortunately, into the first category." -- Giles Coren, The Times (London)

Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon
John Lennon is the most famously photographed Beatle—everyone from Iain MacMillian to Annie Lebowitz took iconic images of him—but there have never been pictures of him like these taken by May Pang, Lennon’s girlfriend from 1973 to 1975. In INSTAMATIC KARMA, they’re collected for the first time. With very few exceptions, these photos are that rare thing: never-before-seen images of an icon. The photos here show Lennon in a variety of settings: at work, at play, at home, and away. They show a playful Lennon, a casual, unguarded Lennon; they’re the kind of photos one lover takes of another. May has written rich captions to accompany her photos--taken together, they tell a simple story of the time May and Lennon spent together; a time, according to legend, when Lennon was unhappy and unproductive, estranged from his family and bandmates. Pang’s photos clearly tell another story—they show Lennon clowning around, working on his hit album “Walls and Bridges”, embracing old friends and family, hanging out in their apartment on Manhattan’s East 52nd Street, relaxing in the country in upstate New York or spending peaceful days swimming in the waters of Long Island.

Cosmic Motors: Spaceships, Cars and Pilots of Another Galaxy
Come explore the vehicle designs of a far away galaxy called Galaxion where futuristic concepts exist in everyday life. Nine different spaceships, pods, race cars, giant trains, warships and balloons from various planets of the Galaxion system are shown from concept to completion. Daniel Simon is an established senior car designer who has spent the last several years focusing his talents on futuristic concepts for such automakers as Bugatti and Lamborghini. In his first book, Cosmic Motors, each chapter shows the design process of a unique vehicle, from the first ideation sketches to the stunningly detailed 3-D models to the final photorealistic full spread renderings. Join Daniel in this virtual world of visionary vehicles!

TV alert: PBS profiles Pete Seeger

The pioneering and courageous folk singer Pete Seeger will be profiled on PBS' "American Masters" program this week. You can check your local listings for the show here.

The Los Angeles has a review of the show:

Seeger co-wrote "If I Had a Hammer" with Lee Hays, a fellow member of the folk group the Weavers, and he had a hand as well in "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Turn! Turn! Turn!" (adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes) and "The Bells of Rhymney" (a setting of a Welsh poem) and had some part in "We Shall Overcome" becoming the anthem of the civil rights movement. "I get too much credit for this song," he says. "I added a few verses, but everybody adds verses."

He's paid tribute here by, among others, Dixie Chick Natalie Maines (another musician who's caught flak for speaking her mind), Bruce Springsteen (who recorded an album of songs associated with Seeger), former New York Gov. George Pataki (who applauds Seeger's spearheading the movement to clean up the Hudson River) and Bob Dylan, who says of Seeger's fondness for audience participation, "Whether you wanted to or not you'd find yourself singing a part, and it would be beautiful."

...As well as laying out the facts of a life, "The Power of Song" amounts to a brief history of 20th century American moments and movements -- the Depression-era labor movement, the Second World War (Seeger went off banjo in hand), the Red Scare, the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement and finally the environmental movement. He joined and later "drifted out" of the Communist Party ("I was against race discrimination and the communists were against race discrimination; I was in favor of unions and the communists were in favor of unions"), which led him in due course to the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he simply said that his politics were none of their business. And he quit the Weavers, with whom he had known success, because he did not want to sing in a cigarette ad.

Pop links

Comics writer (and anthropologist!) Michael L. Fleischer talks to Comics Bulletin about his career and those great Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman encyclopedias he wrote, and which are now back in print.

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Kleefield on Comics presents some jaw-dropping images of newsstands of the 1940s. Who wouldn't want a time machine to go back and scoop up all those Golden Age comics?

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From No Smoking in the Skull Cave: Smokin' celebs!

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The big-screen Justice League movie is on again, Variety

Now that the writers strike has been resolved, Warner Bros. is pushing ahead with its plans to make "Justice League" in time for a 2009 debut.

.....Adam Brody, cast as the Flash, is the biggest star in the superhero lineup. Rapper Common nabbed the Green Lantern role; other roles went to lesser-known thesps such as Armie Hammer Jr. (Batman) and Megan Gale (Wonder Woman).

Dark Horse plans Spirit merchandise

Dark Horse Comics plans to release a range of products based on Will Eisner's "The Spirit."

Two lines are planned. One will feature products based on Eisner's original comic, while the other will be based on the upcoming film adaptation of the series, directed by Frank Miller, which comes out in 2009.

Items will include statues, busts, PVC sets and sculpted magnets and more.

Lost season 4 episode schedule revealed

ABC has announced the schedule of "Lost" episodes for the remainder of the series' fourth season.

The current run of available, pre-writers' strike episodes will end with March 20. Then, there will be a break (yeah, I know, ugh) and fresh eps will resume April 24.

Here's how it breaks down:

Episode 5: Feb. 28
Episode 6: March 6
Episode 7: March 13
Episode 8: March 20
............
BREAK
............
Episode 9: April 24
Episode 10: May 1
Episode 11: May 8
Episode 12: May 15
Episode 13: May 22 (Season Finale)

Also see:

Lost Season 4 Episode Guide
The Best Lost Sites on the Web
Lost: What we STILL don't know

More Spectacular Spider-Man 'toon pics

Artist Sean Galloway posted these character designs from the upcoming "Spectacular Spider-Man" cartoon on his blog.