Speaking of the sixties, with all the recent James Bond hoopla, popslant  has been reviewing the older James Bond flicks. As we progressed to the sixth movie of the series, we made an amazing discovery. It is our contention that George Lazenby, the one-time james Bond in 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," is in reality Graham Kerr, TV's "Galloping Gourmet."

The resemblance is unmistakable - the lanky frame, the square side-burns, the Australian accent. Who knew? Anyone who was around in 1969 remembers that The Galloping Gourmet was a big hit with the ladies - something we could never quite figure out. Well, now we know why! How could any red blooded, pointy glasses wearing sixties lassie resist a secret agent who can do the job in the bedroom and the kitchen!

What a clever ruse! Doing double duty as the premiere sixties secret agent and the square bad joke telling TV icon is masterful stroke of genius by Kerr.

Of course, we know that's not really the case, but it does explain a lot about the attraction ladies had for the square Kerr. When we see the Bond mania that exists whenever a new Bond movie debuts, we can understand how a then unknown TV chef could catapult to stardom so quickly - because he looks just like the James Bond of that year!

popslant  now predicts a huge resurgence in Mad magazine now that the new Bond movie is out... especially when Daniel Craig is so obviously in reality Mad magazine cover icon
Alfred E. Neuman...

Heavy Metal magazine, a favorite in the late seventies and early eighties, is still publishing and still features some of the best comic art out there! I hadn't read Heavy Metal since the eighties, when I thought they began to decline somewhat, so out of curiosity, I picked up the latest issue.

The stories were fresh and enjoyable, and the artwork top-notch. One thing that is not missed is the preponderance of serialized stories, one of the things that made early Heavy Metal mags a bit of a drag. Almost every story was part of a serial. Not quite so anymore, and a welcome change.

Missed are some of the classic Heavy Metal artists such as Moebius, Phillippe Druillet, and Philippe Caza. Boris Vallejo has artwork in it though, and Richard Corben was seen in some recent issues. Oh well, the Moebius' of tomorrow have to come from somewhere, don't they?

Another element missing would be cover art that does not feature a pin-up girl on every single issue. I like to look at the ladies as much as anyone else, but early issues had covers featuring all sorts of subjects, in addition to the occasional voluptuous sexpot. Viewing the covers for the recent issues made me think I was looking through nudie mags rather than comic books. The last issue not to feature a pin-up girl was 10 years ago.

August 1978	March 1979	November 1998
Artwork by a classic early HM artist Philippe "Caza" Cazamayou. Globular!	Here's one for the gearheads! "S*M*A*S*H" by Angus McKie features a crazy tank battle!	This cover by Zook is the last HM cover to feature something other than a pin-up girl.

Springtime is here, Iron Man is in the theaters, but I'm already looking ahead to... Christmas? That's because that's when the Frank Miller version of the The Spirit hits theaters, and it is quite an anticipatory thing indeed.

For those of you who may not be familiar with The Spirit, let me just say that it was one of the most cerebral newspaper comic of its time. Created in 1940 by Will Eisner as the lead feature of a comic book insert to Sunday newspapers, the stories evolved from crime-fighter vs. criminal plot-lines to include such diverse themes as a momentary stoppage of time (A Time-Stop!), the tense environment of quiet sounds or the absence thereof (Quiet!) or detailed character studies of the psychosis of a criminal (The Meanest Man In The World). The artwork was executed in a dark and moody film-noir scheme uncommon in Sunday newspapers comics of the time and which suited the story-lines well.

popslant  believes that taking this character and adding the current film-noir innovation of Frank Miller should result in one of the best film releases of 2008.