It's like some kind of unofficial meme: "Look what I found on YouTube!"
Yep, it's my turn now. (And a good thing it *isn't* an unofficial meme, as unlikely as I am to do those.) Look what I found on YouTube, everybody!
First, a time capsule from my childhood which explains MUCH about why I got into comics the way I did:
( For those who can't use the embedded player, if any: http://youtube.com/watch?v=i__2vabLGxY )
This is the title sequence from Filmation's Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle cartoon. The series ran from 1976 to 1978 (after which the hole in my Saturday morning cartoon-consumption was to be filled, significantly, albeit to varying degrees of fulfillment, by the Zorro / Lone Ranger power hour) and was the first thing I was ever fannish about. I kept *notes* about this show, I wrote down the names Tarzan called various animals and what some of the other nonsense words he used seemed to mean; apparently I was planning to write fanfiction. I wasn't even in kindergarten yet, mind. Man, I wish I still had that notepad.
Anyway, YouTube -- thus far at least -- only has the title sequence, but there's plenty enough there to show you all what it was that wee Jack *imprinted* on... a dark-haired hero, flipping through the air in dazzling acrobatic displays, helping those in need and looking damned good doing it. (And also having a possibly inappropriately-physical relationship with a much larger, physically intimidating adoptive parental figure. No, you aren't imagining that.)
I happened to find a DVD -- bootleg, because whoever owns these rights doubtless rightly presumes there isn't enough of a market after 30-odd years to cover the cost of producing DVDs -- last year or the year before at a certain famous Manhattan comics shop located next to Grand Central, where they have an impressive collection of old-school crack you'll mostly not ever see released commercially. You have to go to the store to buy them or even see which titles are available, since for reasons that should be obvious they don't want to sell or discuss the bootlegs online or by phone, but it's worth the trip.
And it's really not so odd that said comics shop would, along with DVDs of stuff like the late lamented Silver Surfer toon (never released due to contract disputes, same reason it was cancelled) and the Superfriends-vs.-Legion of Doom live action thing, have my good old Tarzan show. Not just because Paul Dini scripted at least one episode. Not because corporate mergers mean that the Tarzan property is now owned by the same people as many of my favourite comics icons.
No, because seriously, if you look? If you watch the way *this* Tarzan moved? Not at all surprising that I fell so hard for Nightwing, decades later when I found the DC Animated Universe (or that other versions of Tarzan always failed to really satisfy me). Sure, Dick wears more clothes. Usually. But he fits perfectly into the heroic-acrobat hole in my head.
And, for those of you who hadn't heard this story... If it wasn't for the Nightwing title, I almost certainly never would've become the sort of reader who took home several dozen titles every month. (Dan Didio take note!) I would've just kept on only reading my Authority comics with their canon gay, and sidestepped the slippery-slope of tied-in books entirely.
So yeah, check out my first love Tarzan there. It's okay to laugh with me.
And because YouTube's search yields fascinatingly random dividends: "initiation by blood and buggery!"
Here is what the poster had to say about this one:A feast Unknown
(Chapters 1-2) of the Multi-Media/Experimental Film cycle Adapted from the book by Philip Jose Farmer, by Jason Robert Bell, was performed in 30 minute segments of the book with pre-recorded audio and a video projection of thousands of original drawings illustrating the story. With permission from the Author.
Farmer deconstructed his two all time favorite characters from his childhood, Tarzan and Doc Savage (called [here] under different names), and has them doing their best to kill each other. There is one problem though; they are being manipulated by a secret group of immortals called The Nine that rule the world and every act of violence results in an erection and to kill results in an orgasm. A Feast Unknown: Volume IX of the Memoirs of Lord Grandrith (1969), is a brilliant exploration of the sado-masochistic fantasies latent in much heroic fiction, and succeeds as satire, as sf and as a tribute to the creations of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Lester Dent. The entire book is an insane parody of action adventure. Where everything that lies in the subtext of "super-hero" fiction is exposed. The "heroes" are unstoppable, un-ageing; millionaire ubermensches super geniuses that have finally found their match in each other. The imagery is so brutal and over the top and presented without a spark of internal irony, making the entire enterprise as shocking to read as it must have been when the book was published in 1969.
Farmer's work pushes suspension of disbelief beyond the threshold of comprehension to an endgame where all other power fantasy and high adventure pales in comparison. A cornerstone of most popular adventure fiction (pulps, comic books, films) is that the tales really are happening right here under our noses and cover of darkness in clandestine warfare in a world where there actually are identifiable super-powered forces of Good and Evil. Most fans of "super-fiction" secretly carry a mustard seed of hope within their minds that it is all-true and all a matter of time before they themselves are initiated and suitably augmented into that far-better world. Farmer's work merely deals with the bald truth of what a real superhuman being would be like, beyond all common understanding physically, mentally, morally, and sexually.
I reiterate: "initiation by blood and buggery." And probably for sanity's sake you should stop watching after the aforementioned bit of dialogue; the voice work is unduly droning, and the visuals are like a finger-painting version of psychedelic. But. Buggery! Yay!
BTW, if anybody is just beside themselves with the desire to see an actual episode of the 70s-crack!Tarzan, comment to that effect and I will see if I can't work out how to get my copy onto YouTube or something.
Sekrit message to Ny: I am not avoiding! I am just busy!
First, a time capsule from my childhood which explains MUCH about why I got into comics the way I did:
( For those who can't use the embedded player, if any: http://youtube.com/watch?v=i__2vabLGxY )
This is the title sequence from Filmation's Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle cartoon. The series ran from 1976 to 1978 (after which the hole in my Saturday morning cartoon-consumption was to be filled, significantly, albeit to varying degrees of fulfillment, by the Zorro / Lone Ranger power hour) and was the first thing I was ever fannish about. I kept *notes* about this show, I wrote down the names Tarzan called various animals and what some of the other nonsense words he used seemed to mean; apparently I was planning to write fanfiction. I wasn't even in kindergarten yet, mind. Man, I wish I still had that notepad.
Anyway, YouTube -- thus far at least -- only has the title sequence, but there's plenty enough there to show you all what it was that wee Jack *imprinted* on... a dark-haired hero, flipping through the air in dazzling acrobatic displays, helping those in need and looking damned good doing it. (And also having a possibly inappropriately-physical relationship with a much larger, physically intimidating adoptive parental figure. No, you aren't imagining that.)
I happened to find a DVD -- bootleg, because whoever owns these rights doubtless rightly presumes there isn't enough of a market after 30-odd years to cover the cost of producing DVDs -- last year or the year before at a certain famous Manhattan comics shop located next to Grand Central, where they have an impressive collection of old-school crack you'll mostly not ever see released commercially. You have to go to the store to buy them or even see which titles are available, since for reasons that should be obvious they don't want to sell or discuss the bootlegs online or by phone, but it's worth the trip.
And it's really not so odd that said comics shop would, along with DVDs of stuff like the late lamented Silver Surfer toon (never released due to contract disputes, same reason it was cancelled) and the Superfriends-vs.-Legion of Doom live action thing, have my good old Tarzan show. Not just because Paul Dini scripted at least one episode. Not because corporate mergers mean that the Tarzan property is now owned by the same people as many of my favourite comics icons.
No, because seriously, if you look? If you watch the way *this* Tarzan moved? Not at all surprising that I fell so hard for Nightwing, decades later when I found the DC Animated Universe (or that other versions of Tarzan always failed to really satisfy me). Sure, Dick wears more clothes. Usually. But he fits perfectly into the heroic-acrobat hole in my head.
And, for those of you who hadn't heard this story... If it wasn't for the Nightwing title, I almost certainly never would've become the sort of reader who took home several dozen titles every month. (Dan Didio take note!) I would've just kept on only reading my Authority comics with their canon gay, and sidestepped the slippery-slope of tied-in books entirely.
So yeah, check out my first love Tarzan there. It's okay to laugh with me.
And because YouTube's search yields fascinatingly random dividends: "initiation by blood and buggery!"
Here is what the poster had to say about this one:A feast Unknown
(Chapters 1-2) of the Multi-Media/Experimental Film cycle Adapted from the book by Philip Jose Farmer, by Jason Robert Bell, was performed in 30 minute segments of the book with pre-recorded audio and a video projection of thousands of original drawings illustrating the story. With permission from the Author.
Farmer deconstructed his two all time favorite characters from his childhood, Tarzan and Doc Savage (called [here] under different names), and has them doing their best to kill each other. There is one problem though; they are being manipulated by a secret group of immortals called The Nine that rule the world and every act of violence results in an erection and to kill results in an orgasm. A Feast Unknown: Volume IX of the Memoirs of Lord Grandrith (1969), is a brilliant exploration of the sado-masochistic fantasies latent in much heroic fiction, and succeeds as satire, as sf and as a tribute to the creations of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Lester Dent. The entire book is an insane parody of action adventure. Where everything that lies in the subtext of "super-hero" fiction is exposed. The "heroes" are unstoppable, un-ageing; millionaire ubermensches super geniuses that have finally found their match in each other. The imagery is so brutal and over the top and presented without a spark of internal irony, making the entire enterprise as shocking to read as it must have been when the book was published in 1969.
Farmer's work pushes suspension of disbelief beyond the threshold of comprehension to an endgame where all other power fantasy and high adventure pales in comparison. A cornerstone of most popular adventure fiction (pulps, comic books, films) is that the tales really are happening right here under our noses and cover of darkness in clandestine warfare in a world where there actually are identifiable super-powered forces of Good and Evil. Most fans of "super-fiction" secretly carry a mustard seed of hope within their minds that it is all-true and all a matter of time before they themselves are initiated and suitably augmented into that far-better world. Farmer's work merely deals with the bald truth of what a real superhuman being would be like, beyond all common understanding physically, mentally, morally, and sexually.
I reiterate: "initiation by blood and buggery." And probably for sanity's sake you should stop watching after the aforementioned bit of dialogue; the voice work is unduly droning, and the visuals are like a finger-painting version of psychedelic. But. Buggery! Yay!
BTW, if anybody is just beside themselves with the desire to see an actual episode of the 70s-crack!Tarzan, comment to that effect and I will see if I can't work out how to get my copy onto YouTube or something.
Sekrit message to Ny: I am not avoiding! I am just busy!