Comic book artist Joe Staton gets recognition, and presumably financial compensation, for co-creating Guy Gardner, the latest incarnation of Green Lantern. In the Superman movie he’s played by Nathan Fillion.
I Hear You No King*
This is how the No Kings protest sounds on the town common, almost a mile from here**. ‘Burning Love’ was, ironically, made famous by Elvis, the King of Rock and Roll. I’ll be walking up there soon to be part of the rally.
* Nominated as one of my best post titles.
** The music was coming from an event not directly associated with the No Kings rally.
It’s a Wonderful Soundtrack
It started with me sending Denro this picture of an album I saw on display at Newbury Comics. The late and very great Joe Sinnott, Bing’s #1 fan, would have been pleased to see a new Crosby record in 2025.
The topic quickly switched to something else from long ago, when Denro replied that he had just purchased a new record he spotted at a Barnes & Noble.
It’s a soundtrack of It’s a Wonderful Life that I heretofore didn’t know existed. Denro said the album was originally released as a CD that is no longer available.
https://www.kritzerland.com/wonderful_life.htm
The CD information at that link includes this warning…
Do not be fooled by any other CDs that purport to be the original soundtrack for this film – they are all bootlegs and contain dialogue, sound effects and music right off the film itself. This is the first release of the real deal.
… a warning that is easily confirmed.
The album Denro bought is also available as a new CD release.
https://lalalandrecords.com/its-a-wonderful-life-75th-anniversary-remastered-limited-edition/
The soundtrack is on Amazon as an MP3 for $9, so I bought that. I would have sprung for a CD copy, but the liner notes are available on the Kritzerland page.
This music cue is called “Love Sequence”. It reminds me of the music that Tiomkin composed for Capra’s Lost Horizon, produced ten years before It’s a Wonderful Life.
My favorite aspect of It’s a Wonderful Life is the contrast that’s drawn between Mary and Violet, who I see as the most interesting character in the movie. It’s easy to infer what Violet originally had in mind for her evening’s fun, before her attempt at seducing George, and it’s certainly intended for mature audiences. “We’ll wait for you, baby.”
Simonson Says
On Facebook, comic book artist Walt Simonson says he’s listening to Technicolor Web of Sound. There are other Internet stations featuring this music, and Web of Sound is on Live365, a streaming service with a shaky history, but I’ll give it a try.
https://live365.com/station/Technicolor-Web-of-Sound—60s-Psychedelic-Rock-a01650
“Political evangelicalism can look quite godless”
This is a thoughtful, yet naive, piece by David French in the NYTimes. My take on the subject is very cynical.
In other words, revival begins with the people proclaiming, by word and deed, “I have sinned.”
MAGA Christianity has a different message. It looks at American culture and declares, “You have sinned.”
I say naive, because he proclaims himself to be an Evangelical Christian, while failing to see the obvious. Condemning others has always been the core tenet of the Evangelical movement. He’s clinging to his own vision of the religion, as embracing acceptance and forgiveness as taught by Jesus, that doesn’t exist in practice.
“Join us or die” is the mission of Evangelical Christianity. That death is supposed to refer to a person’s soul being denied a home in Heaven. But today it means hating and harming those who don’t love Trump. So, the central precept is actually, “agree with us or be destroyed.” What Trump has done is make it okay to be much more vocal with what they have always been about.
As I have said before, I saw all of this coming fifty years ago, albeit not with Trump, when I was part of Campus Crusade for Christ, with “Crusade” being the operative word. Self-proclaimed Evangelical Christians aligning themselves with Trump is proof they are about politics, not religion. The few of them, like French, who are discomforted by this are struggling with a feeling of cognitive dissonance that I remember all too well.
We had a weekend retreat with a Christian Fellowship group from another college. They were part of Intervarsity, an organization that was similar to, but not the same as, Campus Crusade for Christ.
Ahead of the gathering, we were cautioned by our CCC campus rep that Intervarsity had some “liberal beliefs” that weren’t scriptural, according to Campus Crusade’s founder, Bill Bright. That was one of many red flags that ultimately led me to reject Evangelical Christianity before graduating from college.
There’s an aspect to my “faith experiences” during college that I have long resisted talking about. I may, but probably won’t, get into it here, as “this material is intended for mature audiences.” I hinted at it obliquely in an old post:
Woke Batman?
After Superman issue #187, Batman #182 was my second DC 80-pg. GIANT comic book.
The collection of reprints features “Fantastic, BIZARRE Adventures!” The most enduring story is “The Rainbow Batman.” YouTube has a surprising number of videos about Rainbow Batman.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rainbow+batman
Here’s one that does a good job of explaining the history behind Batman’s mysterious costume swaps.
Now there’s a bizarre “AI Batman” in (mostly) black & white!