MOVIES & TV | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Sep19

GEORGE REEVES’ SUPERMAN: It Took Decades But I Finally Get What Made Him Great

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Sep 19, 2020

GEORGE REEVES’ SUPERMAN: It Took Decades But I Finally Get What Made Him Great

An ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE… — UPDATED 9/19/20: The Adventures of Superman debuted 68 years ago! Perfect time to re-present this piece that first ran on George Reeves’ birthday back in January. Up, up and away! — Dan — The late George Reeves was born 106 years ago — Jan. 5, 1914 — and I think one of the reasons I never really cottoned to the Man of Steel as a kid was because of the actor’s 1950s Adventures of Superman. Strange way to start a birthday tribute, I know, but please bear with me here. See, I was 5 in 1972 and by then I was already hard-wired for Batman, thanks to the Adam West TV show, with its over the top, go-go DayGlo buzz. Both programs were in syndication by that time, and to these young eyes – and, I surmise, millions of others – there was no comparison. Batman had a cool sidekick, fantastic villains, slick gadgets, turbo-charged vehicles and the greatest HQ in the history of mankind. Superman? All his bad guys wore gray suits and fedoras – even when the episodes were in color – and his big hiding place was a secret closet where he hung his costume when it wasn’t under his own gray suit and fedora. And besides, the Man of Steel didn’t even show up that much on his own show. You’d get 20 minutes of Clark Kent snooping around and 10 minutes of Superman saving the day – if even that, when you factor in commercial breaks. Batman unlocked a whole world of comics and action figures and collecting for me – unleashing a near-lifetime of obsession and wonder. Superman, was just kind of … there. Sure, he was Superman. I knew he was a big deal. But he just never moved me – on screen or on the page – until Christopher Reeve came along when I was almost 12. But even then, it was too late: As much as I loved 1978’s Superman: The Movie – and many of the comics ushered in by John Byrne’s reboot in the ’80s – I remained a Batmanophile, first and foremost: The Batmobile had left the Batcave, y’know? OK, so fast-forward 48 years or so years from the days sitting cross-legged in front of the TV set. Really, to just a few...

Sep17

SUPER-CHIMP! Dig the 13 Grooviest PLANET OF THE APES Trading Cards

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Sep 17, 2020

SUPER-CHIMP! Dig the 13 Grooviest PLANET OF THE APES Trading Cards

Apes on the go for the late Roddy McDowall’s birthday! — UPDATED 9/17/20: The late Roddy McDowall — aka Cornelius aka Caesar aka Galen — was born 92 years ago! Perfect time to re-present this piece from 2017’s APES WEEK! GO APE! — Dan — Before the advent of home video, it was virtually impossible to check out your favorite movies and TV shows at will. One particularly analog substitute was to collect trading cards. It wasn’t the same as watching but at least you could pore over full-color photos of, say, Star Trek (click here) or Star Wars anytime and anyplace (assuming your teacher wasn’t looking). I was into Planet of the Apes cards from Topps. I was too young to ever encounter the cards from the original movie but I was the perfect age for the cards produced from the TV show (which used the same design). I’d take my Galen and Urko and the rest, wrap a rubber band around them, and voila, I had a pocketful of Apes I could take anywhere. My cards are long gone, but thanks to Abrams ComicArts, I now have the complete runs not just of the TV set but of the movie set too — in a fashion. Timed to the release of War for the Planet of the Apes, the publishing house has put together another of its lovely hardcovers that reprints retro card sets: The nearly 500-page book, which lists for $24.95, features images of every POTA card produced by Topps — fronts and backs — covering the 1968 original film, the 1974 show on CBS and, yes, the Tim Burton reboot. The cover mimics the design and feel of the original wax-paper wrappers and you even get an exclusive set of four cards representing the new film series. Included are photos of old boxes and other ephemera, as well as a terrific historical essay by Gary Gerani, who has edited hundreds of Topps cards series. Each card image is accompanied by some helpful info or commentary. So in the spirit of APES WEEK, I dove in and picked my favorite 13 cards. They’re about evenly split between the film and TV show because I had to include some of the more memorable ones from that stack I used to keep in my pocket when I was...

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