New comics Oct. 15, 2014

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Batman '66 Vol. 2
Back to the Swingin' '60s as DC Comics reimagines the classic Batman TV series in comics form.  These all-new stories portray The Caped Crusader, The Boy Wonder and their fiendish rogues gallery just the way viewers remember them.

In this volume, one of Batman's deadliest foes—King Tut returns to Gotham City to assert his royal status and challenge the Dynamic Duo with his most far reaching plan yet to rule the modern Thebes known as Gotham City!

Collects issues #6-10.

Batman '66 Vol. 1
CAN the Caped Crusader unravel the Riddler's latest ruse?

WILL Catwoman, that feline queen of crime, sink her claws into our heroes?

HAVE the Dynamic Duo met their match in the Antarctic Alliance of the Penguin and Mr. Freeze?

WHO will get the last laugh when Batman and Robin are forced to team up with the Clown Prince of Crime himself—the Joker?

The answers await you on each pulse-pounding page of BATMAN '66 VOL. 1, an all-new collection of spine-tingling, swashbuckling stories in the style of the classic Batman TV series!

Written by Jeff Parker and illustrated by a gallery of great—including Jonathan Case, Ty Templeton, Joe Quinones, Sandy Jarrell, Ruben Procopio and Colleen Coover—each action-packed adventure captures the high-spirited hijinx that have made Batman and the Boy Wonder the world's gold standard for daring do-gooders!

Collects issues #1-5.

Marvel Masterworks: Ms. Marvel Volume 1
The year was 1977, and Marvel was set to debut its latest and greatest new super heroine. NASA Security Chief Carol Danvers' life had long been intertwined with the alien Kree's interventions on Earth. But now it was time for this new woman in a new era to take on a new persona all her own - Ms. Marvel! As editor of Woman magazine, Danvers must contend with the Marvel Universe's biggest blowhard, J. Jonah Jameson, while discovering her identity and origins as a super hero.

COLLECTING: Ms. Marvel (1977) 1-14

Thor Epic Collection: The God of Thunder
Pull up a seat to the beginning of one of the greatest tales of modern myth - the epic saga of the Mighty Thor! While vacationing in Norway, Dr. Donald Blake discovered a strange, gnarled cane. Upon striking it, a shower of lightning rained down and the hobbled doctor found himself transformed into Thor, God of Thunder! In these pages you'll journey across the Rainbow Bridge to Eternal Asgard, and meet Lord Odin, Heimdall, Balder, and Thor's evil half-brother, Loki, for the first ti me. And to top it off , the mythological origins of Asgard are revealed in fan-favorite backup features!

COLLECTING: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (1952) 83-109 (THOR EPIC COLLECTION VOL. 1)

Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge: "The Seven Cities Of Gold" (Vol. 14)  (The Carl Barks Library)
Collects further Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge/Donald Duck stories — including the one that inspired Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Uncle Scrooge takes Donald and the nephews on a perilous trek in search of the fabled seven cities of gold! This is the Scrooge story famous for providing Steven Spielberg and George Lucas with inspiration for parts of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Speaking of gold and movies, James Bond fans might recognize in “The Mysterious Stone Ray” a gimmick that was later used in Goldfinger — Uncle Scrooge’s pores fill with gold dust from his money bin. It makes him ill so he goes on vacation, which turns into a rescue mission for a sailor stranded on an island with some very mysterious baddies. Also, Scrooge decides to run for Treasurer of Duckburg, but it seems the only way to get votes is to spend a lot of money. (Sound familiar?) And you know what Uncle Scrooge thinks of that! Carl Barks delivers another superb collection of clever plot twists, laughout- loud comedy, and all-around cartooning brilliance. Full color

DC announces Wonder Woman '77 comic based on 1970s TV series

In the spirit of its entertaining Batman '66 series, DC has announced another comic title tied to a cult classic TV show: they Lynda Carter "Wonder Woman" series of the 1970s.

The series will appear online starting in December with stories compiled later on in a print collection.

New chapters will appear weekly. Marc Andreyko will write. Artists to be announced.



Vintage movie poster: Chamber of Horrors


Today's best picture ever: I Dream of Jeannie


Music new releases Oct. 14, 2014: The Kinks; The Ventures, more

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The Essential Kinks



DVD and Blu-ray new releases Oct. 14, 2014: X-Men Days of Future Past; Mr. Peabody and Sherman; Fargo Season One; Penny Dreadful Season One; Star Wars Rebels, more

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X-Men: Days of Future Past








Pop Focus: Transcendental Meditation with the Beach Boys

The Beatles get credit for introducing Transcendental Meditation to the masses, but they weren't the only pop band to cross their legs and say "om."

The Beach Boys were right along with the Fab Four when it came to embracing the practice.

Mike Love -- along with Donovan -- was with the Fab Four when they visited India in 1968 to study with TM's founder the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

The rest of the Beach Boys -- with varying degrees of enthusiasm -- also took up TM and the band mentions the practice in a number of songs, including the manic "Transcendental Meditation" off the Friends LP and the calmer "T.M. Song," which if the B-side to 1976's "Rock and Roll Music" single.

The group (or at least Love, Brian Wilson and Al Jardine) even recorded an L.P. at Maharishi International University in 1978, dubbing the result The M.I.U. Album. Hardly anyone liked it.

Back in the 1960s, taking up meditation or yoga was seen as eccentric and far out. The Beatles were even taken to task by William F. Buckley and others because they felt the band was leading youngsters astray from Christianity with these pagan practices.

Today, of course, everyone has a yoga mat and numerous medical journals have published studies showing that the radical practice of sitting down and breathing deeply for 20 minutes twice a day can lower your stress level and protect you from heart attacks.

I've not been through any T.M. trainings or prescribed a mantra, but I do meditate on occasion and wish I did it more often.

Here's a look at those Far East gurus, the Beach Boys: