“I am not a number; I’m an action figure!” You mighta heard in your travels over the last week or so that the first-ever officially licensed action figure line based on The Prisoner — the ’60s cult classic television show starring and created by Patrick McGoohan — is headed to your own particular Village. Wandering Planet Toys’ Kickstarter is live now — click here — so get in while the getting is good. There’s a whole raft of different sets and packages to please even the most skeptical former intelligence agent. Meanwhile, company co-founder Chris “Doc” Wyatt — who produced Napoleon Dynamite and is big in animation (among many writing credits is the superb Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes) — is here with a really thoughtful and engaging 13 REASONS TO WATCH THE PRISONER. But, wait there’s more! We’ve got EXCLUSIVE production art for the action-figure line to show off, as well. (See below.) Anyway, don’t forget that this weekend is PortmeiriCon 2021, the annual celebration of The Prisoner; it will be held virtually both April 24 and 25. Right on. By CHRIS “DOC” WYATT 1. It’s Ahead of Its Time. On one level, The Prisoner is a simple mystery show. An unnamed British intelligence agent, who recently quit his job, gets gassed and abducted, waking up in a charming little village on a mysterious island from which there’s no escape. The residents of the island are given numbers instead of names. Our hero, “Number 6,” runs up against the leader of the island (“Number 2”) who constantly interrogates him, demanding to know why the agent quit his position. Number 6 knows nothing about where he is, or why he’s here. He doesn’t even know if the Village is run by his enemies, or by his own government. But that’s just the plot; the show quickly becomes an allegorical tale about privacy (and surveillance) in a world of modern technology, about government overreach, about the nature of democracy, about secrets and lies, about who to trust, about telling the difference between fake and real information, and about so much more… At its most pitched moments, the series becomes part paranoia and part fever dream. Honestly, though it was shot in 1967, The Prisoner feels more relevant to 2021 than most of the shows coming out now. The word “visionary” gets...
It’s Batman’s anniversary and we take you on a tour of a life collecting the Caped Crusader… Hey, guess what: Batman debuted 82 years ago on March 30, 1939! To celebrate this offbeat anniversary — 82 is hardly a round number — we bring you recurring contributor and fellow Batexpert Mark S. Reinhart with 13 OFFBEAT BATMAN COLLECTIBLES. Groovy. By MARK S. REINHART I wasn’t quite 2 years old when the Batman TV series premiered in January 1966, and I started hanging onto whatever Batman merchandise I was given right at that point in my life. Thanks to my ongoing Batman obsession and my parents’ kind indulgence, many of these items have stayed with me throughout my 56 years. A life of collecting Batman has brought me some unusual things, and I thought it would be fun to share 13 items that I consider to be kind of off the beaten path. There is a common theme to some of the pre-1970s items. Even as a little kid, I was fascinated by Batman stuff that captured him as a darker, more serious hero. Strangely, I guess I was drawn to a vision of the character that reflected Bob Kane and Bill Finger’s original creation before I even knew their first Batman comic stories existed! Here, then are 13 OFFBEAT BATMAN COLLECTIBLES, in no particular order: — Batman infant’s bib, 1966. There’s nothing dark or serious about this first item. Yes, this bib was mine, and I used it when I was a baby. My parents never got rid of it because I simply liked looking at its colorful Batman image even when I didn’t need to use it anymore. But even as a toddler, I remember being annoyed that the colors on Batman and Robin’s costumes weren’t true to the costumes of the TV show! — Batman kid’s dinner plate, 1966. The same goes for this plastic dinner plate in terms of not being dark or serious. And it was also something I used when I was a very little kid. This image of the characters was pulled from the cover of the classic comic book Batman Annual #1, Summer 1961. The only change that needed to be made from comic to plate was putting a yellow oval around the bat symbol on Batman’s costume in order to update...
By the Eye of Agamotto, it’s due this fall…
EXCLUSIVE: This Mego-style release is a real laugh riot…
EXCLUSIVE: Cesar Romero was born 114 years ago…
