Worst of Fighter

Does a person really count as a "mixed martial arts fighter" if their one bout ended with them being carried out on a stretcher?

Toei Tokusatsu Hero Box - Disc 4

(See? I haven't forgotten this.)

Some odd shows cropped up in the latter half of the 1970s. I know there are folks who would label the entire tokusatsu genre "odd", but Toei really seemed to be trying to do something different from the standard henshin hero at that time. The results were...well, mixed. This disc contains some cinematic artifacts of that period.

THE KAGESTAR was apparently an attempt to do an "American" style superhero show. Check out the dude's overly large star-spangled cape just for starters! As I understand it, there were also a lot of villains who were completely unconnected to one another. Well, they get to team up here, but my enduring memory of this featurette is the hero jumping to kick a huge satellite dish OFF A MOUNTAIN. This was sort of out there even by the standards of the folks who gave us the Kamen Riders.

KYODAIN is the slightly unholy result of merging the Toei hero aesthetic with a style akin to ROBOKON. I can't call it bad, per se, but some of the action sequences are almost headache-inducing the way they are set up. This series is notable for being the only non-Rider tokusatsu to feature Takeshi Sasaki ("Hayato Ichimonji"), and it co-stars singing star Mitsuko Horie.

NINJA CAPTOR is obscure even by Toei superhero standards, and that is saying something. It's a 7 member team of heroes, in a move that both does and doesn't anticipate super sentai (it comes after GORANGER, but before BATTLE FEVER J). The real novelty is that the team includes both Daisuke Ban (Naoya Ban here) and Kenji Ushio! Yes, you too can marvel to Jiro and Jigoku Daishi fighting for the same side!

DAI TETSUJIN 17 ("Giant Iron Man 17") is represented with two separate movies. The first is made up primarily of the first episode, with some of the second one thrown in for good measure. The editing on this pretty much throws continuity out the window. The second is a full episode, and is the last stand of the villainous Captain Roper! OK OK, that's his character's name in the American English dubbed compliation video BRAIN 17, but you've got to admit it has a nice ring! And you sure can't go wrong with legend AKIHIKO HIRATA in the role, either!

DAI TETSUJIN 17 is a show of many influences. Though credited to the pen of Shotaro Ishinomori, it's hard to miss its similarties to Mitsuteru Yokoyama's TETSUJIN 28/GIGANTOR and GIANT ROBO/JOHNNY SOKKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT. If this wasn't a Toei show, it would probably be actionable. There are also strong thematic connections to both the animated "super robot" shows and Tsuburaya's giant hero genre. In many ways, I'd call DAI TETSUJIN 17 Toei's most atypical 1970s tokusatsu show. I also think it may be one of my favorites.

With the possible exception of DAI TETSUJIN 17, none of the shows featured on this disc are well-remembered today even in tokusatsu fan circles. While I wouldn't call any of them a "must see", they all manage to be entertaining in their own right. Well, maybe not KYODAIN - I'll let you judge that for yourself if you get the chance.

Next time in this ongoing review series (when I remember it), we'll talk about Disc 5! That's right, I have no special hook for you on this entry. Sadness.

Pretzel Logic

You know, I don't care what your feelings are about SPACE GHOST COAST TO COAST, I still say this is one of the funniest panels I have ever seen in a comic book.



From : Cartoon Network Presents #2 (DC Comics; Sep. 1997). Script : Matt Wayne. Pencils : Joe Brozowski. Inks : Bob Smith. Letters : Pat Brosseau. Colors : Trish Mulvihill. Editor : Bronwyn Taggart. © The Cartoon Network, Inc. and Hanna-Barbera.

For Sarapuu - EVERYBODY

(Click to view full-size)

This piece was originally drawn and submitted to my deviantArt account on April 1, 2007. It was most definitely not an April Fool's Day joke.

I had been messing around with drawing some of my old childhood characters during this time, and was entertaining the notion of doing a big picture depicting a bunch of them in action. The original idea was for a "reunion" shot - and that picture did wind up happening eventually. But another idea jumped ahead of it in terms of importance.

I had a befriended a young lady who went by the handle of Sarapuu on dA in 2005. She was always so cheerful and positive, and she never failed to make me smile. Sara was having a rough go of things at this point in her life, and I decided to give her some giftart to maybe cheer her up. The concept quickly grew out of control, and incorporated characters from my current pantheon as well as the childhood favorites.

The lineup : The Viking, Captain Satellite, Thunder Man, Enemy Alien, Ferro Man, Red Circle, Hugo Beaumont, Force Field, Bat Eater, Black X, Unknown Man, Drone Man, Bird Man, Exploding Man, Elastic Man, Muscle Man, Klaytron/Slaytron, Ultimate American, a Third World agent, Firegirl, Mr. Tough, Avenging X, Elektroid, Black Terror, Neutro, Blue Behemoth, Conehead, Amazing Girl, Sherman Tank, Muscle Woman, Black Knight, Conqueror, Shelly Ericson, and Urban Nightmare. That's the best I can do as far as listing them in order. You'll be seeing most of them again on this blog.

This picture accomplished its goal of bringing a smile to Sara's face. What's more, it sparked a creative outburst from her using my characters. I was humbled and amazed to see how she could breathe life into my crude sketches.

In a departure from my rule against discussing personal matters on this blog, I should mention that Sara and I eventually became more than just friends. That aspect of our relationship has concluded for now, but I still consider her one of the best friends I've ever known. She has changed me for the better, and I continue to treasure everything she brought into my life. She is the best, and don't let anyone tell you any differently.

Sara, this one's for you. I raise a glass to all the great memories we've made, and all the great memories yet to come.

History of ROJ - Part 5

Part 5 - Today's Lesson, Boys & Girls

"Return of Jetman" was always, for good or bad, one of the central components of OWARI - even when we tried to shuffle it to the side. One of the reasons for OWARI's birth was to publish ROJ and the fact that most of it never saw the light of day was always a sore spot for me. Getting the chance to do justice to it and the characters I grew to love was one of the highlights of my writing...well, "career" is far too strong of a word. Let's say "hobby" instead. It was tricky making sure Green Wyvern didn't take over the whole thing again (*laughs giddily*), but that was a challenge I was willing to take. It wasn't necessarily brilliant, but I never intended it to be. I only wanted it to be faithful to the material and a good read. In the process, I learned a lot about writing, and myself.

Lewis didn't come out too badly from the ROJ experience, in my estimation. The positive reinforcement and collaboration seemed to spark more and more creativity in him. When ROJ went away the first time, parts of it were reincarnated in "Seven Spheres Legend". When Lewis self-published GUNMETAL BLACK #1 in 2002, it took months for me to realize that it was (unintentionally) his upscale version of the book I had promised him in 1999. Stray influences from the story still pop up here and there. If the original ROJ made Lewis' subsequent artistic triumphs possible, it was a success.

So, how to sum up ROJ? Well, Lewis Smith started this series rolling way back when, so it's only fitting that he has the last word. In OWARI #11 (August 2002), in his "More Truth Than Reality" column, Lewis wrote:

"It was good for me. It gave me the confidence to go on and do later stuff, and there's always a part of me that wants to go back and do the old number one last time. Because like all good rock and roll songs, it takes you back to a time when it was fresh and you had a power over life you never knew you had. A time when it felt like you could take on the world with what little you had...and win."

 

THE END

***

Get the full story at www.returnofjetman.com!

History of ROJ - Part 4

Part 4 - Reborn! Return of Jetman

ROJ never really went away for us. During the summer of 2001, Lewis did four new pictures for it just for his own amusement. Both of us wrote reflections on the series in various places. But we had, by and large, consigned it to the past. At least for a little while.

Assorted personal issues had sort of left me adrift in the early months of 2002. I was scrounging about looking for something new, something different from what I had been doing. In the midst of this lack of direction, my thoughts returned to "Return of Jetman".

On April 7, 2002, someone with the username "Ali24" began a thread on the now-defunct Xenorama ezboard message board asking about Return of Jetman. To say this left me flabbergasted is a bit of an understatement. When I replied to this thread, I opined, "It's unlikely at this point the story will ever be finished."

As far as I knew at the time, that statement was true. And yet...the more I thought about ROJ and the potential it held, the more I became gripped by a sensational idea. I could take the series and finish it myself. I could use its familiar territory to return to fiction writing in earnest for the first time in years. And then - I could post it on the Internet!

I did what I usually do when I have a radical idea - I started to work on it in secret. No sense in getting anyone excited if nothing came of it. I sat down with Lewis' originals and determined that my best course of action would be to revamp the whole thing from the ground up, using his plot structure as my guide. This was no knock on his storytelling, but rather an acknowledgment of the fact that we are not going to approach a story the same way. If this new ROJ was to have any stylistic continuity, it would have to be me from start to finish.

My plan was ambitious - TOO ambitious. I wanted to write an elaborate, 52 story epic that would emulate the basic structure of the Japanese "sentai" shows that inspired the story. As I worked my way through the planning process, I came to understand that such lofty goals were setting myself up for failure, or at best mediocrity. I wasn't ready to do something of that scope. I scaled back gradually until I arrived at the present total of 14 stories for ROJ.

The glue that bound my new story structure together was something I called "Uchu Sentai Galaxyman" years ago. Basically, while Lewis was creating ROJ, "Galaxyman" was a similar concept that I was toying with in my head. I never set any of it down in writing, but I developed a general plotline for "Galaxyman" that I found satisfying. I incorporated workable elements from that plotline into my new ROJ concept, with modifications.

(Ironically, in between my creation of "Galaxyman" and my relaunch of ROJ, one of Toei's sentai series was named GINGAMAN, which translates as..."Galaxyman". I guess it was too good a name to go unused forever.)

Well, when I had something solid, I presented it to Lewis for his approval. He was surprised but enthusiastic. Of course, he couldn't realize what he was getting himself into by greenlighting the thing. You see, I had loved Lewis' 4 new ROJ pictures. So much so, I wanted to put them up on the 'net. The story gave me a perfect excuse. But he had only done four characters. I would need the rest. This led me to actually commission Lewis to do new versions of those characters he had created so long ago. I think "dumbfounded" would be the best way to describe his reaction. But Lewis came through with flying colors, turning out some sensational new pictures.

While Lewis worked on his art, I was toiling away on recreating the magic of 1995. No one was more surprised than me that it was working. The new ROJ was coming together better than I could've dreamed possible. I came to realize that the ROJ site was not just a faraway possibility. It was something that HAD to happen and SOON.

I quietly posted early drafts of the first two episodes of the "new" Return of Jetman series on Lewis' late lamented ESB/GMB Forum in June 2002. They didn't garner much notice there, but seeing them online was a start. It also gave me the opportunity to work out a few kinks that I had let slip in due to a lack of attention and/or inspiration. But I had much bigger things in mind.

I would found my own message board, dubbed "OWARI Message Board", on July 30, 2002. This board was created for a myriad of reasons, but one of the main ones was for me to have a place to promote the new ROJ material and get feedback on it. It proved to be an excellent vehicle for those purposes, first in the separate "Return of Jetman" forum and later in the "OWARI" forum when I merged the forums together.

The "Return of Jetman" page made its official debut as a subsection of my OWARI site on November 18, 2002. A new episode debuted every month until ROJ reached its conclusion on December 23, 2003. The message board hosted a number of fun and enlightening discussions about the series, but it began to wind down after the narrative finished. I ultimately decided to shut the board down entirely in October 2004.

However, the wrap-up of the ROJ series didn't mean the end of ROJ entirely. I continued to bring in new content until I decided that my small ROJ webspace was entirely too limited to hold it all. This led me to launch www.returnofjetman.com in 2004, with the hopes of having all relevant ROJ content in one easy to find location.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

***

Get the full story at www.returnofjetman.com!

History of ROJ - Part 3

Part 3 - Not With A Bang...

ROJ Part 6 was a strange animal. Lewis had mentioned the big plans he had for it - it was to be a turning point of sorts. When it arrived, it was only 3 pages long. Coming on the heels of the epic Part 5, this was a shock.

What I didn't know then was that Lewis' own personal life was taking its toll on him. By the time he began work on Part 6, it had pretty much overwhelmed him. He felt like it would be best just to try to work his way through it. It didn't quite pan out.

After what he had already done in ROJ, I didn't feel like we could get away with Part 6 as it was. I discussed the matter with Lewis at length. At first, he was convinced he could rework the story into something a little more elaborate. A letter dated July 9, 1997 includes a list of 17 (!) replies to suggestions I had made. Most of these have faded from my memory, but one was to call the baddies "The Chaos Coalition" - the first use of that name. I was thinking it might be useful when we restarted.

Yes, as incredible as it sounds, we considered redoing the whole thing from the ground up only two years after we began. I don't know why either. That ended up falling by the wayside quickly. Eventually, Lewis decided that he just couldn't go any farther with the series.

At this point, I apparently volunteered to PLOT the rest of the series, with Lewis writing the actual stories. It sounds good in theory, but the evidence indicates otherwise. The plot notes I wrote out - the rewrites of Parts 3 & 4 (with plenty of gratuitous ideas added on) - some of my suggestions - all of it points to the inescapable conclusion that ROJ would've gone to hell in 1997 if we had been able to make our plan work. I kid you not, I cringe when I read some of it today.

It was all academic. I stubbornly continued to work on the next issue of OWARI even though I knew I really couldn't publish it. Lewis still wanted to do ROJ, but his heart wasn't in it anymore. Eventually, the whole thing just petered out. Though neither of us ever came out and said it, I think we both knew the truth. ROJ was dead.

Or was it? By January 1999, I had abandoned the idea of ever publishing OWARI again. Naturally, a new issue came out not too long afterward.

Lewis and I had continued to correspond, but we hardly ever discussed ROJ. I clung to the notion of bringing OWARI back for a long time, but finally discarded it as unworkable. Then I was struck by a thunderbolt of inspiration ("Change the format!") and completed OWARI #4 (April 1999) in one week. OWARI #5 (July 1999) followed close on its heels.

The triumph of reviving my almost totally forgotten fanzine led me to consider the fate of ROJ. I conferred with Lewis and we hatched a cunning plan to bring it back. ROJ would return - but NOT in OWARI itself. It would instead be reprinted, completed, and expanded as a separate publication of its own (though still under the "OWARI" banner to try to avoid legal entanglements). Each story would be accompanied by brand-new spot art by Lewis. Lewis turned out two magnificent drawings in short order and I wrote a teaser that I dropped into OWARI #6 (October 1999). We were off and running!

Er, or maybe not. After a strong start, the new ROJ proposal stalled. In the time since ROJ, Lewis had established his own little fiefdom on the Internet and he was turning out material on a regular basis. I'm not sure the exact timeframe on it, but his much-storied "Seven Spheres Legend" was coming out in this period.

So, why am I telling you this? Because Lewis had volunteered to complete ROJ not because he wanted to finish it, but because he felt like he should finish it. He didn't have a clear idea of the direction he wanted and literally had started over with every new letter. I backpedaled a little in OWARI #7 (March 2000), saying that we were "working on it".

Well, as 2000 progressed, even dense ol' me sensed that something was wrong. I pressed Lewis more than once, but he always insisted everything was fine. I told him, in essence, "I don't want you to do this if it isn't something you want to do."

Inevitably, the other shoe dropped. Lewis' letter dated October 15, 2000 declared the ROJ revival "stillborn". We tossed around some publishing ideas in subsequent letters (Nov. 26, 2000, Dec. 26, 2000 & Feb. 23, 2001) involving Seven Spheres Legend, Lewis' Ronin character, the relatively new Kienan series (soon to be tagged "Gunmetal Black") and perhaps some sort of ROJ article. Nothing came of it, due largely to difficulties I had encountered on other projects.

I regretted that I wasn't able to give Lewis the publication I had promised him. However, I was relieved that we'd quit bashing our heads into walls over ROJ. Clearly, its time had passed.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

***

Get the full story at www.returnofjetman.com!