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Books & Graphic Novels Toys & Collectibles

Regal Roll-Out: Image Comics’ “King Spawn” #1 Dons the Crown of Sales Superiority

spawn, image comics, king spawn, Todd mcfarlane
Greg Capullo’s Variant Cover Art for the Record Breaking King Spawn #1

Title: King Spawn #1
Publisher: Image Comics
Release date: August 25, 2021

Congratulations to comic artist and uber-entrepreneur Todd McFarlane on achieving a landmark launch with the first issue of King Spawn. With nearly a half-million comic retailer pre-orders to date, this Image Comics title becomes the single highest selling new superhero monthly in 25 years.

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Film & Television Series Music SkeletonPete Says Toys & Collectibles

All You Need is Love Bugs: Beatle Songs Drive Netflix Series

beat bugs, netflix, buzz, blip toys, sweet suite, swag box
This is HiJinx Toy’s Fab Figure of Buzz, the “Beat Bugs” youngest member.

Getting a Buzz…
OK, I admit I’m late to the gate on this one but thanks to Toy Insider’s review merchandise from Sweet Suite 2017 (AKA “The SWAG Box”) I’m now hip to the joys of NetflixBeat Bugs series. After encountering a HiJinx Toys’ Fab Figure with a blister pack touting “inspired by music made famous by The Beatles” I just had to know more.

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Music

Traveling Monkberries: Rhino’s Barrel of New & Old

the monkees, rhino records
Rhino Records drops some new Monkees music on us as we wait for the release of their spruced up TV series BluRay Box Set. All 58 episodes of snarky lunacy that melded the Marx Brothers with pop culture of 1960’s West Coast America will appear in the midst of innumerable bonus features. Those extras include the group’s only feature film Head as well as the even more challenging final television special 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee. The mega-set can be ordered at the Monkees’ official website only, and is limited to 10,000 copies world wide.

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Music Photography

Picture Yourself: Morrison Hotel Gallery Launches 50th Anniversary Beatles Photo Celebration

MorrisonBeatles_02
It Was 50 Years Ago Today, Literally…
I’m writing this at 11:12 AM on Sunday February 9, 2014. 50 years ago, at this moment, America at large was mostly unaware of a group of four long haired lads from someplace in England called Liverpool, though a persistent gnat-like buzz about something called The Beatles was infiltrating their consciousness via a building media feeding frenzy.

That evening, introduced on The Ed Sullivan Show, the Sunday night staple of family television viewing, 73 million people tuned in and everything changed.

The Morrison Hotel Gallery in SOHO NYC launched their Beatles 50th Anniversary Photo Celebration with a bustling opening night event.
The Morrison Hotel Gallery in SOHO NYC launched their Beatles 50th Anniversary Photo Celebration with a bustling opening night event.

Tell Me What You See…
As a February 1964-2014 celebration The Morrison Hotel Gallery has mounted a 30 image collection, curated by Julian Lennon, mostly focused the events of the Fab’s American arrival, first US concerts, and Sullivan show appearances.

Guests crowded the gallery’s opening night event, discussed their favorite images and the influence that The Beatles have had on their lives, to a background of the Sullivan show performances.

Gallery owner Peter Blachley greeted Pattie Boyd, the former Mrs. George Harrison, who has several images in the exhibition. Boyd was interviewed by Japan Broadcasting Company NHK. CBS’s Anthony Mason, who will host an online “warm-up” for tonight’s commemorative broadcast, was also in attendance. (Editor’s Note – 02.10.14: An overview of that event, featuring Pattie Boyd, Peter Asher, Andrew Loog Oldham, Neil Innes, Felix Calvaliere and many others can be found here)

Pattie Boyd discusses her photo work and Beatle lore with Erina Aoyama of Japan's NHK Broadcasting.
Pattie Boyd discusses her photo work and Beatle lore with Erina Aoyama of Japan’s NHK Broadcasting.

There are plenty of iconic images, like the Fabs’ emerging from the airplane in New York City to screaming fans, along with a nice selection of shots new to even those of us who have been following along since 1964. Of interest to photographers will be Robert Whitaker’s proof sheet from the Sullivan show appearance.

Along with the familiar on-stage and staged images we’re treated to a number of peeks at the group behind the scenes. These fly-on-the-wall moments, in the back of a limo or relaxing in a hotel room, nicely balance with the running, jumping, standing still PR confections. They are like a look inside the eye of a publicity hurricane.

Photographer Charles Trainor captured future world wide icons on the rise in 1964.
Photographer Charles Trainor captured future world wide icons on the rise in 1964.

Punch Brothers…
Charles Trainor’s documentation of “the boys” Goon Show style encounter with Muhammed Ali (then Cassius Clay) still stands as a brilliant, though last minute, press coup that in its time seemed to legitimize the careers of each burgeoning star.

SkeletonPete Says…
The Morrison Hotel Gallery exhibit includes the work of the aforementioned Trainor, Whitaker and Boyd, along with images by Curt Gunther, Terry O’Neill and Ken Regan. Limited Edition prints are available for purchase in a number of sizes. The exhibition runs through February at the Gallery’s Loft space, 124 Prince Street, 2nd floor, SOHO, NYC.

I was 9 years old when that first Sullivan Show appearance was broadcast. As with so many others, The Beatles became part of my personal timeline and their artistic growth always of interest, but nothing ever really matched the sheer exuberance of that experience.

As someone who in the past has surreptitiously used February 9, 1964 as the Facebook birthdate for my own band, it was great to meet so many people who have only experienced The Beatles in historical retrospect but are appreciative of that performance which turned into a cultural watershed.

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Art Books & Graphic Novels Music

Fanfare for the Un-Common Man: Dark Horse’s “The Fifth Beatle”

This Magic Moment: Brian Epstein Encounters The Beatles in Liverpool's Cavern Club (Illustration courtesy of Dark Horse Comics)
This Magic Moment: Brian Epstein Encounters The Beatles in Liverpool’s Cavern Club (Illustration courtesy of Dark Horse Comics)

The Fifth Beatle
Author: Vivek J. Tiwary
Illustration: Andrew C. Robinson with Kyle Baker
Dark Horse Publications
Hardcover
Release Date: November 19, 2013

Plenty of Jam Jars For You…
There is a plethora of Beatles related items calling for your attention this season, from Apple’s second edition of their recordings for BBC broadcast to Kevin Howlett’s archive book on the same subject. There’s the first installment of Mark Lewisohn’s three part behemoth of Beatle-philia, and the lighthearted documentary film Good Ol’ Freda highlighting the group’s still coy and effervescent fan club president Freda Kelly. Along with these, in what might seem at first an unlikely medium, is Dark Horse’s The Fifth Beatle, a graphic novel rumination on the life of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, written by Vivek J. Tiwary and illustrated by Andrew C. Robinson with Kyle Baker.

Can’t Buy Me Love…
Every artist needs a true believer in their corner, and of all notable advocates Epstein stands out as a blueprint for what can be accomplished with a mix of perseverance in the face of ridiculous odds, the innate cunning of a twentieth century Medici, a paternalistic doting on his wards, with a healthy dose of personal ambition and true – though unrequited – love.

Although often portrayed as a provincial who missed reaping appropriate financial rewards for many merchandizing deals, Tiwarry shows Epstein to be smart enough to lose a little in the now, to gain much more down the road. His deal with Ed Sullivan is particularly noteworthy in that sense.

The Fifth Beatle is not the fluff of Epstein’s autobiography A Cellar Full of Noise but akin to the intimate – though fictionalized – character study of David Münch’s 1991 film The Hours and The Times. Behind the stoicism of Epstein’s business face is the story of a man living outside of the values of his times. Epstein’s then illegal homosexuality, his dependency on prescription drugs, family pressures and self doubt are dealt with frankly.

Like many great graphic novels, the pages of The Fifth Beatle could easily double as film storyboards, and indeed Dark Horse’s press release hints at a movie in the works. While his research is impeccable, Tiwary, who previously worked on Broadway’s American Idiot, The Producers and Young Frankenstein, allows himself enough creative liberty to tell the story in an artistic manner. His use of a fanciful Pepper Pots style gal Friday (a mod dollybird playfully called Moxie) creates a foil for Epstein’s inner voice, and the script’s event juxtapositions play like a Francis Coppola screenplay. It’s also quite a stage worthy scenario. Can the musical be far behind?
TheFifthBeatleCover
Mother Superior Jump the Gun…
Mid-book Kyle Baker is handed the opportunity of an artistic intermezzo to cover the 1966 debacles of the group’s Philipines tour and John Lennon’s “bigger than Christ” comment. It recounts the first chinks in the Fab’s popularity and is duly rendered in a loose comic style that suggests the madness of Alice in Wonderland’s Caucus Race and appropriately relates (in retrospect) the absurdity of it all. It’s a wry comment on what happens when fans’ unquestioning adulation turns to fanatical indignation. I’m pretty sure encounters with mad bull Imelda Marcos and Beatle album burnings in the American south never factored into Epstein’s most outlandish reveries of what push-backs Beatlemania might suffer.

And In the End…
An extended “making of” section is an especially welcome addition to the already handsome hardcover. It gives readers a behind the scenes peek at the creative process with pages of Tiwarry’s script and tons of Robinson’s preliminary pencil art for major characters, blocking of pages and attention to details of the time.

SkeletonPete Says…
Don’t make the mistake of overlooking Tiwary’s meticulous research work because it is wrapped in the guise of a graphic novel. With The Fifth Beatle you get biography bathe in the beauty of Robinson and Baker’s artwork. It’s a must have addition to the bookshelves of Fabs fans and would make a delicious gift.