Raise your hand if you remember The Electric Company. I see a few hands shooting up - congratulations! We're middle-aged.
After school in 1980-1981, The Electric Company (and 3...2...1...Contact, Star Blazers and Get Smart, while we're here) were what I watched after school. Of them, I've only ever revisited Star Blazers, so I can't say I remember any of them too well. I have, however, revisited Spidey Super Stories - the Electric Company/ Marvel Comics joint venture that tied in to the wall-crawler's always vocal-less appearances on the EC - a few times over the years.
For those who've never run across the series, it was an early reader, outside-of-continuity series. No one ever liked it much back in the day, but over time it's developed a bit of a cult following. I've been reading them with my elder daughters (age 5 and 4) the past few weeks and wanted to share some impressions of a random sampling.
1.
2.
THE LIZARD
(OR AS MY BROTHER-IN-LAW CALLS HIM, "LIZARD MAN")
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| Just teasing, bro-in-law. |
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| Oh the sitcom possibilities of this labeling set-up. |
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| This also works as just a surreal advertisement. "Come to the new exhibits at the Brookfield Zoo!" |
3.
"THAT FLASH THOMPSON IS GOING TO FINALLY GET
WHAT'S COMING TO HIM...!"
4.
I DIDN'T COME HERE TO BE INSULTED
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| The Mouse is stealing all the cheese. |
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| I've got to say: outside of possible super-villain attack, Spidey would be a pretty awesome babysitter. |
5.
SOME TITLE PAGES
AND BACK COVERS
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| Tom Whedon wrote a fair bit for The Electric Company. RIP. |
6.
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| FACT. |
7.
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| Thought-caption-of-death, right there. |
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| That's Marvel Boy (later renamed Quasar) and Paul the gorilla playing the Luke and Chewbacca parts. I forget the name of the robot already as the composite droid. |
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| ... |
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| Does this make Doctor Doom Spidey's (or Quasar's) father in the Electric Company universe? |
8.
THE BLOWHARD
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| This is where things get weird. |
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| Why, Blowhard? You just injure yourself! |
9.
SOME RANDOMS TO CLOSE US OUT
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| Thank you for joining this installment of The Scenic Route. |
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| "OCTOPUS MEN!" |
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| My daughters laughed for days over this panel. |
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| I'm sure the State Police will handle Mysterio just fine. |
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| Fairly accurate recreation of what actual spiders do when I try to swat them. |
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| I believe him. |
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| I don't know if I have ever seen Peter play tennis in almost 40 years of reading Spider-Man. |
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| Perfectly goddamn reasonable. |
~
The above images are all from Spidey Super Stories 13-14, 20, 22-23, 31, 41, 51, and 54-57. Art direction by John Romita, Sr. and Marie Severin.
Awesome post!
ReplyDelete(1) I was an "Electric Company" viewer many and many a. The Spider-Man segments were always my favorite, because, you know, Spider-Man. I was always a little bemused by the fact that he never really did much of anything, but I wasn't exactly hep to the concept of public-television budgetary limitations.
My mom would occasionally buy me issues of Spidey comics, but I don't believe I ever had a "Spidey Super Stories." Which is a shame; I think they'd have been right up my alley.
(2) "LIZARD" / "CURE" = awesome. I guess it makes sense. You definitely want to run no risks of getting those mixed up.
(3) "Kolfax Mingo" is easily among the five finest names I've ever heard in my entire life, right up there with Dick Warlock, Thor Freudenthal, and Scott Evilsizer.
(4) "I ordered pizza, not a cracker!" I prefer to look at that statement as a racial slur, and it delights me. Also, who delivers their pizzas on a tray instead of in a box?!?
(5) I love that Medusa On The Run page. All of those, really, but especially that one.
(6) Mary Jane looks pretty hot dressed as Spider-Woman. I apologize for being a weirdo. I just watched "Lifeforce" and I think it make have broken me.
(7) Kingpin IS a crook, no doubt about it. That fact checks out, even in 2018. So far.
(8) That whole "Star Jaws" thing is so insane I don't even know what to do with the information that it exists. I mean, that's so crazy that I want to launch a podcast investigating it. I'm not going to, but I WANT to.
(9) Marvel Boy sucks. Moon-Dragon, on the other hand, rules.
(10) Is that a really bunk-ass Millennium Falcon knockoff towing the TNT into space? It must be.
(11) "Oh, no! That's the third house this month!" Holy shit, who are these Blowhards that they can afford to burn through that many houses on a regular basis?!? Looks like they'd be able to afford some proper supervision for their weirdo baby.
(12) I would absolutely patronize an establishment named Best Hamburgers On The Block.
(13) Dude orders 300 burgers, and the server obviously determines that rather than dealing with them individually, he's honor-bound to find a serving tray large enough to squeeze 'em all onto. What is it with this comic and serving trays?!?
(14) "My daughters laughed for days over this panel." -- They're good people; that's the correct reaction.
(15) "I'm sure the State Police will handle Mysterio just fine." -- lol
(16) It does indeed track that the construction of a porcupine suit would be a prelude to crime of some sort. Or of a Comic Con visit, at least.
(3) Totally agreed.
Delete(6) Lifeforce can do that to a guy! Totally understandable.
(13) I am definitely on the lookout, now, for more serving tray gags.
(16) Crime or con - I can see that being the final throw-the-dart-and-make-your-choice pair of options!
Glad you enjoyed! There'll be 3 or 4 more of these by the end of the year, I think.