Retro Fan #27 July/August 2023 (magazine review).
This latest ‘Retro Fan’ has taught me a lot about the American kiddie show ‘Captain Kangaroo’ (1955-1984) as writer L. Wayne Hicks goes over its history and the life of Bob Keeshan who played him. The name came from the big pockets he had than any other similarity to marsupials. Considering the series ran some 10,000 episodes, it must have had something going for it.
Writer Mark Voger, meanwhile, looks at the various teen monsters ranging from Michael Langdon as a teen werewolf to Gary Conway as a teenage Frankenstein monster to Norma Eberhardt in ‘The Return Of Dracula’. A couple oddities are ‘Frankenstein’s Daughter’ (1958) where actress Sandra Knight wasn’t a monster and ‘Teenage Caveman’ as actor Robert Vaughn in an early role. The latter two I’ve yet to see.
The second part of writer Andy Mangels look at the ‘Challenge Of The SuperFriends’ animated series (1978-79) has a lot of Alex Toth’s model sheets for the heroes and villains which should please his fans to have them collected together. It’s rather interesting how some of them are shown how they walk. I was quite surprised by how many super-villains were used and how some weren’t because there was quite a diversity.
Writer Will Murray gives the lowdown on ‘The Rockford Files’ (1974-80). I’ve been working my way through the seasons again myself, still great TV, but hadn’t realised it had actually started as a filler on ‘Toma’ but the script was thought too good for that. Writers Roy Huggins and Stephen Cannell took it to James Garner and the rest is a 6 year history. The reason that they kept so much as it was a simple threat that Garner would quit if the studio changed what made it successful and that included the dry humour.
Editor/writer Mike Eury’s look at the kung fu engulfs not only the films but into the comicbooks themselves. About the only thing he missed was the book series ‘The Destroyer’ by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir but, then, Sinanju is the sun source that all other martial arts is based off of. 😊 If you think you’ve missed any early kung fu material then this is a good read to start tracking from.
I have a feeling American toy manufacturers liked to live life dangerously with kids’ lives from writer Scott Saavedra’s article. We were a lot more cautious in the UK. Even the ‘Mr. Potato Head’ toy had blunt pieces. About the only real thing I learnt from my own chemistry set was to grow crystals as most of the chemicals were harmless. Reading that radioactive materials, probably pitchblende, were used in the USA is scary. I certainly would be cautious with the Austin Magic Pistol. Watching the footage on You-Tube, they only use one crystal of calcium carbide and water but you can bet young American kids would put more than that in there, so no wonder it would explode and it was banned. I’m tending to treat this article as a cautionary piece and check if you have in your lofts for safety sake.
Writer Scott Shaw! has a look at Jack Kirby as the funny cartoonist. My first encounter of this was in Fantastic Four Annual # 5 with ‘This Is A Plot?’ which is highly recommended and got reprinted in the ‘Not Brand Echh!’ archive. I have a feeling a lot of comicbook artists like to show they’re capable of other than straight drama or super-hero but I never realised it was so extensive in his own work.
This ‘Retro Fan’ has plenty to appeal to everyone, so don’t miss this issue.
GF Willmetts
June 2023
(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 82 page magazine. Price: $10.95. (US). ISSN: 2576–7224. Direct from them, you can get it for $10.95 (US))
check out websites: www.TwoMorrows.com and https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_152&products_id=1701
