The Return Of Captain Action

I was excited to see the return of one of the most iconic toy lines of the 1960's, Captain Action. Toys R Us has an exclusive on the first wave of costumes for the good Captain. Captain America and Spider-Man constitute the first wave and they are very nice. I picked up Cap and he looks great.

The attention to detail in the costumes is great and I love the mask they used for Cap. It has a very Silver Age look to it, which I really like.

There are more waves of costumes to come, including one I'm really looking forward to. The second wave consists of The Mighty Thor and his dastardly brother Loki. Thor looks great, as seen in this promo shot.

Those will be great but I'm really looking forward to the debut of Captain Action as The Rocketeer. I can't wait for this beautiful costume set of the iconic Dave Stevens creation.

For more info on the good Captain, check out the great Captain Action website, which offers up to date news on all things CA.

Graffiti Designs Retro Marvel T-Shirts

I'm really glad I picked up these retro 1960's Marvel t-shirts back in the late 90's. I probably should have geeked out and worn the Avengers one to the new movie. All art by Jack "King" Kirby.

Bond Book Art

Mad Men Is Back!

I was extremely thrilled to watch the long awaited return of my favorite TV show Sunday night. AMC's Mad Men. The first episode was great and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. One of my favorite books is Mad Men The Illustrated World by the extremely talented artist Dyna Moe. She captures the flavor of the show to a T in these tremendous images from this must have book.

For more of Dyna Moe's incredible art, check out her fantastic Flickr page.

Ralph McQuarrie R.I.P.

I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of the renowned artist and designer Ralph McQuarrie. He had many, many credits throughout his career but he's best known to legions of science fiction fans as the main designer of the Star Wars universe. He did a fantastic job making George Lucas' creations come to life. Some of his early concept drawings didn't end up much like the finished product but they're still shining examples of great fantasy art.

Many of the drawings ended up looking remarkably similar to the finished product on screen. I especially like the iconic drawing of Luke looking down at Mos Eisley with the twin suns of Tatooine beating down on the city.

All of these images came from the indispensible The Making Of Star Wars by J.W. Rinzler, the definitive book on the making of my all time favorite movie. One of the reasons it's my all time favorite is due to the amazing talent of Ralph McQuarrie. There'll never be another one like him.

The Golden Anniversary of Friendship 7

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of John Glenn's Mercury flight aboard the capsule Friendship 7. It was the first orbital mission for the United States and it marked a very important turning point in America's race with the Russians. Glenn became a national hero and the space program was the focus of practically everybody in America at the time. I was fortunate to get a signed copy of Glenn's memoirs several years ago and it's the pride of my space autograph collection.

There are many sites online that celebrate this historic mission. This site has some wonderful desktop wallpapers that are just gorgeous. One of them is at the top of the post and this one is really neat too.

Of course, every kid at the time wanted to be an astronaut. The closest most of us got was playing with our G.I. Joe Astronaut figure. The capsule was sold separately naturally. I have an original capsule but I ended up getting the newer Mercury Astronaut figure some time back. It's always fun to recreate the historic missions of the Original Seven.

Hopefully there will be historic missions similar in scope to Friendship 7 in the future. I just hope I'm around to see them. For more info about the mission and his encounter with the man himself, check out my buddy Neato Coolville's blog.

The Beauty Of Red Rocks

I've been going to Colorado off and on for the past 30 years and my favorite thing to do when I'm in the Denver area is visit Red Rocks, perhaps the coolest music venue in the United States. It's a beautiful natural amphitheater up in the hills near Denver. It's been host to many music legends like The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, and most famously U2. Their show there in 1983 was captured forever in the Under A Blood Red Sky video. I took a bunch of pictures of this legendary place last year.

I've also picked up a few of the many postcards produced through the years. Most of these date from the 60's I believe.

If you're ever in the Denver area, a trip to Red Rocks should definitely be on your to do list. There's no other place like it.