Fantastic Friday

There will never be another comic book family and their foes who will replace the Fantastic Four as my favorites. It's been awhile since I've posted an artistic tribute to them, but I fix that with a couple fantastic Fantastic Four drawings from Claudio Castellini!

The Avengers: The Master Minds

The Master Minds (1965)

Starring: Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Laurence Hardy, Bernard Archard, Patricia Haines, and Ian MacNaughton

Director: Peter Graham Scott

Rating; Nine of Ten Stars

After a cabinet minister (Hardy) is nearly killed while stealing state secrets, but claims to have no memory of attempting to do so, secret agents John Steed (Macnee) and Emma Peel (Rigg) discover his treason may be linked to his membership in RANSACK, a private club for people with exceptionally high IQs. 

"The Master Minds" is another great episode, with another clever script that deftly mixes humor and suspense, and, more importantly, makes the comic book universe within which John Steed and Mrs. Peel exist seem real. While trying to figure out what is causing elected officials and loyal government employees to turn traitor (and even murderous), they have to tread carefully because of the lurking political scandal. This sense of reality is further heightened by Steed behaving in a far more serious fashion than usual, with the scenes of Steed interacting with fellow employees of the Ministry and a government psychiatrist showing that Patick Macnee can bring an intensity to Steed that we rarely see. This more grounded, serious Steed brings a slightly darker atmosphere to this episode, and the grounding make the climactic scenes all the more intense. (All that said, it's also Steed's rebellious flippant approach to life that ends up saving him and Peel both, if in a somewhat roundabout way.)

Mrs. Peel's treatment "The Master Minds" is also interesting, as moreso than ever before, it's spelled out that she is the "total package" with even more brains than she has beauty and enough breeding to shut down lecherous men without causing a scene. In this episode, it's established that Mrs. Peel is not only smarter than Steed, but she is a literal genius. The test administered by RANSACK (which she passes easily) certifies her as such, and she even helps Steed cheat (and yet still has to falsify his results) for him to be considered for admission. 

This episode also keeps up the momentum until the very end, with an exciting and very creatively staged climax where we see Emma Peel and the mysterious figure who's using RANSACK as a vehicle to corrupt Great Britain's greatest minds in silhouette, behind a rear-projection screen upon which military footage is being shown. The only drawback is that nowhere near enough is done with this very interesting villain. In understand why the identity was kept secret until the end, but I feel like this is another one of those minor characters in "The Avengers" who deserved more screen time... and who should have made a reappearance in another episode or two.

It's St. Patty's Day!

 Since gender-flipping is all the rage these days, we here at Shades of Gray have turned St. Patrick into St. Patty. This majestic figure of revised legend stands ready to hook snakes, drop them in cages, and humanely relocate them to somewhere far away.

His nightmare is our entertainment

A Nightmare (1896)
Starring: Georges Melies and Jehanna d'Alcy
Director: Georges Melies
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A man (Melies) has a dream that starts out pleasant enough, but quickly turns frightening and bizarre.

At just a little more than one minute in length, "A Nightmare" still manages to deliver a ton of entertainment. Like most of special effects pioneer Georges Melies' early efforts, it moves at such a breakneck pace that if you blink you'll miss some of the magic and jokes. (And even if you're paying close attention--like some guy watching it with a mind toward perhaps writing a review--there's so much non-stop activity that you're likely to miss something. I, for example, didn't notice that the room changes more than once as the dream/nightmare unfolds until I captured an image for use with this piece.

If you're interested in film history, "A Nightmare" is not only a good time, but it's also a must-see. If you're familiar with Melies' work, either through posts here or from more reputable sources, you know that he commonly tells fantastic short stories where he uses his trick photography techniques to either transport his protagonist onto other words or into dreamscapes, or to cause supernatural forces to haunt them in mundane surroundings. As far as I can tell, this film was the first time he used dreams as a narrative device and it's also the basic template for many of the fantasy-oriented short films he made over the decade or so that followed.

You should take a (literal) minute to check out this great little film. It's quite well done, considering Melies was still developing his techniques. The only thing that could have made it better was a slightly different ending--I was hoping for one of the dream characters to show up and give a little twist... but I know that's not the approach they took back then: Normalcy was almost always restored by the end of any fantasy or horror film, (One VERY amusing detail is that when the version I watched was digitized, someone felt obligated to "protect" viewers from seeing Melies' shlong in his onesie, so they pixilated his crotch area. Hilariously, the eye is now drawn to his crotch now than it probably was before.)

Musical Monday with Justin Bieber

It's probably because I'm old, but I have never understood why Justin Bieber appeals to ANYONE. His music is lame, his public persona waffles between imbicilic and obnoxious, and when he grew that mustache he looked hilarious! But... he has things I don't have--like a ton of money, a ton of adoring fans (many of whom seem to tack -atic upon their fan-status), and a photo-model wife, fellow show-business lifer Hailey Bieber (formerly Baldwin).

In January of 2021, Bieber released a love song devoted to his wife Hailey. As is the case with almost every Justin Bieber song I've heard, I can't say I loved it. The video is also a curious one. I can't quit get a read on whether it's supposed to invoke home movies (which seems likely) or if it's supposed to give us the feeling that Bieber is observing the love of his life when she's not aware he's looking.

Whichever the case, Hailey Bieber is very photo model-y throughout, having a sultry/surly air about her that she'd rather be doing anything than what THIS is. There are some rare glimpses of her seeming natural and even smiling a bit, but, all in all, I think the video misses the mark a bit; Justin may love this more than anything and anyone, but she may not feel that way about him. (The fact it's shot in the desert Southwest of the U.S. also doesn't exactly scream "flourishing romance" to me.)

Although this Bieber/Bieber video stirred some nostalgic feelings in me about time I spent some time with a girlfriend in similar locations when I was in my 20s, I find the relationship portrayed in this similar-themed John Legend video and song ("All of Me") far more appealing.

Is there a Justin Bieber fan out there who can tell me what I'm missing when it comes to his popularity? And perhaps someone can even tell me if I'm offbase in how I view the music video below.

Anyone (2021)
Starring: Hailey Bieber
Director: Joe Termini
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

Ko-Ko and Cat Videos -- 1926 style!

It's the Cats (1926/1927)

Starring: Anonymous Voice Actor

Directors: Dave Fleischer and Max Fleisher

Rating: Five of Ten Stars

After the animation studio is closed for the night, Ko-Ko the Clown and his sidekick escape from an ink bottle to put on a variety show for local kittens.

"It's the Cats" is one of many short films from the Fleischer brothers that combines live action footage with animation that starred Ko-Ko the Clown. They were always framed with Ko-Ko emerging from an ink bottle and then eventually returning back to it. The series, and for a brief time the company that produced them, were known as Out of the Inkwell. 

The typical "Out of the Inkwell" short had Ko-Ko bringing the laws of the animated world into the real one, often while interacting with his animator. Here, the only interaction between film and animation happens at the very end when Ko-Ko and his puppy assistant let mice loose for the kittens to chase as the grand finale to their show. Otherwise, all we get are shots of kittens looking at cartoon posters and sitting in chairs, supposedly watching the escaped animations performing on stage. (The kittens do cross over from the real world into the animated ones, as Ko-Ko's theatre--except for the seating--is entirely animated.)

"It's the Cats" is the most disappointing Max Fleischer cartoon from the 1920s/early 1930s that I've watched so far. It opens with a series of repetitive gags involving Ko-Ko putting up posters advertising his show to the kittens. It the proceeds with a series of so-so animated vaudeville style performances, one of which drags on for too entirely too long--a hi-dive act with some amusing visuals but that manages to overstay its welcome--and another very short bit that still manages to grow unfunny due to some looped animation. If I understand the timeline of Max Fleischer's business correctly, this cartoon was made as it was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and had to be saved by an "angel investor" with whom neither Max or his brother Dave got along. The level of creative effort that went into making this one was probably not as high as the "Out of the Inkwell" installments the preceded it, so the overall outcome is a little lackluster. It's not bad exactly... it just pales in comparison to what came before, as well as much of what would follow in the early 1930s. (Oh... one nitpicky thing that bothered me were to toy cats used to fill chairs in the theatre. Did the Fleischers think the audience wouldn't notice?)

But you can watch "It's the Cats" below and form your own opinion--and I hope you'll share it if it's different than mine!

Trivia: There were two different versions of "It's the Cats" released. First, was a silent version in 1926. It was re-released the following year with a new title card (where the "savior" of Fleisher's operation got top billing) and synchronized music and sound. (Ko-Ko engages in some muttering that could charitably be described as spoken lines.)

The Avengers Dossier, Page Five

Continuing the mini-profiles of supporting players in Season Four episodes of "The Avengers":

ANDRE MORELL

In "Death at Bargain Prices", Andre Morell played Horatio Kane. He's an eccentric businessman who's grown embittered with society and who has withdrawn from public life and taken up residence on the top floor of a department store he owns. From here, he is overseeing his ultimate deal and money-making scheme.

Andre Morell was born in London, in 1909. He was a classically trained actress who began his professional career at the Old Vic in the early 1930s, and transitioned into television with parts in screen adaptions of classic novels and various other made-for-television movies during the late 1930s. For the next three decades, and into the 1970s, Morell was a fixture on British television, as well as a familiar face in big screen thrillers and horror films during the 1950s and 1960s from the legendary Hammer Films and other studios, His appearance along side Peter Cushing in "Cash on Demand" being a favorite here at Shades of Gray. 

Playing Horatio Kane in "Death at Bargain Prices" was Morell's second appearance on "The Avengers". He was also in the Season Three episode "The Death of a Batman" as a different character. 

Morell, who had started smoking at the age 14, passed away from lung cancer in 1978. 

Forgotten Comics: Mad Dogs

Mad Dogs #1 - #3 (Eclipse Comics, Feb - April 1992)
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artist: Victor Toppi
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

An Assistant District Attorney tasks a burned-out detective on the verge of suicide with assembling an off-the-books task force of violent, former law enforcement officers to go outside the rules to make cases against the city's most dangerous criminals. Their first target is a brutal drug lord who is seeking to expand his operation beyond Chinatown by crushing and coopting rival Jamaican gangs and through alliances with the Mafia.

"Mad Dogs" is a brutal, bloody cop story where the line between the heroes and villains is razor thin and the moral high ground upon which the heroes of our story stand is only inches above the cesspool that the drug dealers, murderers, and gangsters they are taking on wallow. The tone and pacing is very much like the gritty Italian and American cop dramas of the 1970s and 1980s. In fact, it feels far more cinematic it its execution than most modern comics, despite the fact that many of those feel more like they're made up of storyboards than comic book panels and pages.

Writer Chuck Dixon takes a "show, don't tell" approach to almost every aspect of "Mad Dogs" as it unfolds across three action-and story-packed issues. The first issue is spent mostly introducing the soon-to-be team of former cops through flashbacks that reveal the violent incidents that got them cashiered and closes with an introduction of their soon-to-be target that illustrates exactly how vile he is. The dialog is well-crafted and, although sparse, gives each character a distinct voice. If you take the as the homage to "grindhouse" cop flicks that it is--and therefore accept the reality that governs those kinds of movies--this is an excellently done story. Heck, the script here would have made a better movie than most of the films it emulates.

Artist Victor Toppi has a style that very effectively captures the decaying urban landscape that "Mad Dogs" takes place in. He also great with action scenes, and he understands how to guide the reader's eye on a comics page with character positioning and panel layouts. He also fully understands how to use shadow and light when working in a pure pen-and-ink medium, and he is the perfect artist for the black-and-white presentation of this book. Unfortunately, Toppi is not good with faces; whenever he attempts to draw a face that isn't showing a neutral or a batshit-crazy enraged expression, he can't pull it off. When the situation calls for a character to be laughing or smiling, more often than not, the facial expression seems closer to blind, top-of-the-lungs screaming rage. It seems that Toppi is aware of this weakness and he tries to hide it with heavy shadows on the faces that are supposed to be smiling or showing amusement... which just makes them look creepy or maniacal. Over all though, the work here is excellent and it reminds me of the black-and-white comics I grew up reading while living in Europe. (Toppi was, near as I can determine, an Argentinian who worked extensively for Italian and British publishers during the late 1970s and well into the 1980s. "Mad Dogs" was his final published work before he passed away in 1992.)

According to the house ads in "Mad Dogs" #3, this series was the pilot project for several other mini-series that were going to take their cues from the "grindhouse"-type action movies and that would also be published in black-and-white. I find it interesting that Eclipse Comics would decide to start producing black-and-white materials at a time when other publishers were abandoning the format--Eclipse had been producing color books when black-and-whites were all the rage among the independent publishers. Personally, I prefer black-and-white comics over most color ones (which is partly why the NUELOW Games comics/rpg products are what they are), so I would have loved to see more high-quality b/w titles, but the follow-up titles never materialized: Eclipse ceased publishing in 1993 and were formally out of business by 1995.

Although "Mad Dogs" has its flaws, it's impressive due to the way it captures the pacing and tone--and the brutality--of the gritty cop dramas that were coming out of low-budget production houses in Italy and the United States during the 1970s and 1980. The series has never been reprinted in a collected edition.

Moping around with Hailey Bieber

We're spending some time with born-to-be-famous model Hailey Bieber (who was named Hailey Baldwin until she married Justin Bieber a couple years ago).

She doesn't seemed thrilled to be here... but maybe she'll be happier when we get together with her and her husband on the next Musical Monday?

Respecting Their Privacy

In a broadcast interview, while revealing intimate details of their personal life, Harry and Meghan said they aren't seeking public attention and value their privacy. Here at Shades of Gray, we're nothing if not accommodating.