Stand by for ACTION!!

...or at least for (finally!) another Episode Review, for which I'm sure you've been waiting with bated breath!

I just finished the writing of the synopsis and comments for "Destroyer Ants", the next episode in line to be given the inimitabubble Matthews treatment :) Once I've had a chance to edit the screenshots, it'll be ready to post. (By the weekend, if not sooner; at least that's my goal.)

Oh, and I've always been fond of the phrase "Stand by for ACTION!!" ever since it was used as the first spoken words in the intro to the classic Gerry Anderson marionette show Stingray:



Also love the line "Anything can happen in the next half-hour!"

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to let you know I'm still here!

I hate making resolutions, but I am going to try to post more often here, especially more episode reviews.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Preview video clip for Herculoids DVD!

The website TV Shows on DVD has been great at alerting me about news of the release of The Herculoids - The Complete Original Animated Series from Warner Archives. And now, they've posted a video clip from the set!

The order page for the DVD states that "This film has been manufactured from the best-quality video master currently available and has not been remastered or restored specifically for this DVD and Digital Download release" (emphasis mine), but still, if the preview clip is any indication of the quality of the rest of the set, it'll still look GREAT! And I am even happier than before that I already have my pre-order in for it. I am stoked! Once I receive the Herculoids set, my three favorite Hanna-Barbera cartoons shows (also including Space Ghost and Jonny Quest) will be in my collection on DVD, fulfilling a long-time desire.

BTW, those of you who are fans of the show might just recognize the clip as an excerpt from the episode "Mekkor", which I'll be reviewing episode after next (next up is "The Spider Man" - and no, no Marvel characters appear in that story!).

UPDATE: Found another preview clip! This one's from "The Pod Creatures".

UPATE 2: Found a third clip on YouTube; once again, from "Mekkor". This one, though, needs a spoiler warning because it gives away the climax of the cartoon.

Unintentional hiatus

Sorry for the lack of posting over the past... two months??? Has it really been that long?

I certainly didn't intend to let it go this long. But that sneaky devil called "real life" tends to interfere with a lot of what I want to do. Commitments to job, to my art commissions, to family, all claim my attention.

I hope to get something posted here by the end of the week. If nothing else, I can post some Herculoids comics here... yes, there were Herculoids comics! They never starred in their own title, but they did make several appearances in a Gold Key series, Hanna-Barbera Super TV Heroes (that also featured characters from several other H-B shows of the time, Like Shazzan! and Birdman.

And I also hope to get back on track with the episode reviews. Next up: "The Mole Men"!

Slight change to episode reviews

I'm currently finishing up the review for episode 1, "The Beaked People", and it's much longer and more involved than I anticipated. So there'll be a couple of alterations to the plans I outlined in the previous post for future reviews:

• Each review will cover only one episode, instead of both episodes in that week's half-hour. The review for "The Beaked People" is long enough as it is; combining it with the review for episode 2, "The Raiders"... well, that's a lot o' reading!
• Also, the goal of a review a week might be a little ambitious. I'll try to keep it up (and reviewing only one episode at a time will make that task easier), but if I miss a week, I beg your understanding. It takes longer to get and process screen grabs than I anticipated, for example.

The review of "The Beaked People" will be up very soon!

The URL

I suppose I should explain the URL. If you're a fan of the show, especially the original 1967 incarnation, you'll recognize the name "mekkor"... the leader of a fleet of small but deadly robots that would've overrun Amzot had not the Herculoids finally defeated them.

Of course, I originally wanted the URL "herculoids.blogspot.com", but was told that name was "Not Available", even though entering that address into the browser returns a "Blog Not Found" message. Ditto "hercblog", "zok" and "tara". (In hindsight, I probably should've also tried "zandor", "dorno", "tundro", "igoo", or maybe even "gloopgleep"?) Still I wanted something distinctive yet easily remembered... by me, if nobody else. And the name "Mekkor" stuck in my brain all these years; so much so that when the idea finally struck me that just maybe YouTube might have some Herculoids episodes available, the episode "Mekkor" was one of the first I looked for. (I'll have more to say about the availability of Herculoids on YouTube in a future post.)

So anyway, "mekkor.blogspot.com" it is. You have to admit, it's a lot easier to type than the name of my other blog, "dcmstudiosonlinenews.blogspot.com"!