Here we are at the eight year anniversary for 911.

Hard to believe...



-Swinebread

He's 1!

I wish I had more time to jot something down, but I just wanted you all to know that Swinebread Jr. is One-year-old today!

We had a birthday party this last weekend. It was so much fun. It was just family but everyone had a wonderful time especially Swinebread Jr.


Of course the party's theme was spiderman... except for the cake which was Looney Tunes.

Junior's headband says Taisho, which means big boss.

I just can't believe it's been a whole year!

Happy Birthday Oh son of mine.


-Swinebread

Happy 4th of July

Have a safe, happy holiday to my fellow Americans and to rest of the world... I hope for Freedom, Peace, and Justice.

Yeah, I know that's a tall order.

and now for those of you that need something a little more patriotic and stuff:



-Swinebread

Happy Father's Day

I so glad there is something wondeful to focus on this Sunday. Today is my first Father's Day! Little Swinebread Jr. is almost eleven months now and is absolutely into all kinds of mischief. Me and the misses have to watch him like a hawk.


-Swinebread

Mine is the The "Tank Man" What's Yours?

I've been thinking about the Tiananmen Square Massacre as this sad 20th anniversary occurs. Looking again at the powerful image of the lone man standing in front of a column tanks I realized, that for me, this is the most powerful image taken during my lifetime. There are others that come close but nothing has quite surpassed the Tank Man. I still get choked up about it these 2 decades later.

Here's part one of the Tank Man doc posted in youtube:


link to the playlist for the whole doc here


I was talking to a buddy at work and asked him what he felt was the most important image taken during his lifetime. Since he's older than me, he said the photo of the earth shot from the moon. Interesting!

What image taken during your lifetime is the most important to you?


-Swinebread

Happy Valentine's Day...

Nothing says Romance like a nice gal and her horse...

uh... yeaaahhh...

It says Don't Take Less right there on the cover for gosh sakes!



-Swinebread

Happy 150th Birthday Oregon!

My Home State is One Hundred and Fifty today!

Oh and just in case you might not know, those Native folks on the cover... they have nothing to do with Oregon... but Classics Illustrated #72 was the only comic I could find with the word "oregon" the cover.


-Swinebread

9-11

9-11, artists respond




-Swinebread

Robert E. Howard's Birthday

Today is Robert E. Howard's 102 birthday. He was creator of Conan the Barbarian and the originator of the Sword and Sorcery genre. Plus, Howard wrote many other wonderful adventure tales set in both modern and ancient times.

But the idea of a man making his living by writing seemed, in that hardy environment, so fantastic that even today I am sometimes myself assailed by a feeling of unreality.

-Robert E. Howard

Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.

-Robert E. Howard


A scene from the movie The Whole Wide World where Howard, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, talks about his favorite creation, Conan.


-Swinebread

Atomic Romance Anniversary

The first X-Men Comic I ever read, issue #173. It’s a Good One!

Today is my one-year blogiversary. I made it kinda’ easy to remember by starting this blog so close to New Year’s Day. Originally I planned on posting a long rambling story about what I had and hadn’t accomplished with Atomic Romance. Well, I changed my mind. It was just a little too tedious. There was one section though, that’s actually interesting so I thought I’d share that with you.

One of the main things I really wanted to do with atomic romance was to go through my old comics and share the joy of these stories. I wanted tell you, the reader, how wonderful comics are by revealing the story of my collection, a collection started many years ago. Sadly, right before I began this blog, I noticed I had developed an allergy to old paper. When I brought some of my boxes of older comics to my apartment from a relative’s house, I began getting really bad sore throats, itchy eyes and runny noses. I’ve never had allergies before so I just thought I had a cold, but eventually I noticed when I wasn’t around my old comics everything cleared up. When I understood what was happening I was devastated. How could I talk about my love of comic books if couldn’t physically stand to be around them. I don’t know how I developed this problem, but I suspect it started when I lived in a very old building with a mold problem a few years back. Regardless, it’s tough. I had imagined a whole series of posts about my favorite titles by my favorite creators. But alas the comics went back to my relative’s house and I had to convey any comic stories strictly from memory. It sucks frankly. A lesson learned though, don’t store your old smelly back issues in with the newer stuff you own. It ALL gets stinky.

Well, besides the annoyance of not having my old comics to go through, I’ve had a great year being online with all of you. Thanks for visiting my blog and reading my random thoughts. I should have done it a long time ago.

-Swinebread

War of the Worlds Radio

I was reminded by Dean Wormer that today is the anniversary of Orson Welles' radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds.

Go here to listen.

September 11th…

Now it’s a double tragedy. Thousands upon thousands of people are dead for no reason at all. Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks of September 11th and yet we “had” to invade that country for some bizarre reason known only to this fascist administration and the war profiteering Halliburton. The good will received by the United States from foreign countries was squandered and Americans were stabbed in the back with a presidential, imperial power grab that was all excused in the name of security, freedom, and patriotism when it really was the suppression of dissent and debate. But reality has finally trumped ideology. The miserable state of affairs in Iraq and the wasted lives of our soldiers, have proven that the Wal-Mart-itzation of war, and incompetence do not magically bring democracy to the world. Nor do they avenge the people we lost on September 11th. The toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan was the opportunity to go after the ones who attacked us and the ones who gave the terrorists shelter but valuable resources and personnel were diverted to the neocon dream war of Iraq and the operation was unfinished. The killers including Bin Ladin got away and religious extremists are back to threaten the region.

Remember those killed on September 11th and remember how their horrific deaths were used by greedy power mongers to do terrible things at home and abroad.

Jack Kirby's B-Day

Heidi MacDonald at The Beat has a nice post about Jack Kirby seeing as how today is his birthday… he would have been 90.

What can I say about Jack that others haven’t said in much more eloquent and appropriate prose? He was so important to the medium of comics it’s impossible to imagine what they’d be like without him. There was a time when I was young, when I though he style was passé, but of course I was immature and stupid. Now, I know he’s one of the greats. Everything I love about comics is tied to the energy and talent captured in his lifetime of work. Nowadays I can just stare at his art. It’s timeless. Jack’s the blue-collar Picasso. He captures a punch like Monet captures a water lily, or an explosion like Dali recreates a nightmare. You feel it in the gut and it flies off the page. He’s a cosmic armada and backstreet brawl all in one.



-Swinebread

20 Million Miles to Earth

I had the distinct pleasure of watching Ray Harryhausen’s 20 Million Miles to Earth. This wonderful monster movie was recently re-released on DVD for it’s 50th anniversary in color. This was one of Harry’s films that I hadn’t seen yet and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a delectable 1950s, atomic horror treat.

A secret mission to Venus by the American Military spells trouble for Europe when a returning US Spaceship crashes off the coast Sicily. A reptilian alien, brought back by the crew, hatches from a gelatinous egg and grows unnaturally huge in earth’s atmosphere. Because of bungling and mistreatment the enraged creature rampages through Rome in a climatic battle causing death and destruction.

20 Million Miles to Earth has everything a classic science fiction fan could want; stiff acting, repressed sexual tension, “funny” foreigners, cold war allegories and amazing effects. Setting the film in Italy is pure genius; in fact it’s downright sexy! There’s just something so right about a cosmic beast battling troops in the remains of the forum and the coliseum. It’s a well-paced movie for a ‘50s film, and still exciting with tons of B-movie clichés twisted just enough to keep it interesting. It’s well done and a nice break from the overproduced sci-fi stuff we see today.

The DVD comes in a two-disk set with lots of goodies including, a retrospective documentary, a colorization process short and an interview with Harryhausen. The colorization of the film is quite good, although it's not as great as Ray Harryhausen raves it is. The monster and the coliseum are some of the best-colored parts of the film but there are some weak spots. For the purists, the DVD also includes the original black and white version.

20 Million Miles to Earth proves that without Ray Harryhausen, fantasy films would have been a whole lot less fun. This film was an international blockbuster in its day, and it’s easy to see why.

Note: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms are all set to get the same colorization treatment.

Here is the theatrical trailer:


-Swinebread

Hail to the King Baby

It's the 30th anniversary of Elvis’ death... er, I mean disappearance. Long Live the King!

Thank you, thank you very much.

pic from here

-Swinebread