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Copyright Spiree Christian Comics Spire Christian Comics started in 1971. New Barbour Christian Comics would later get the rights to the comics and continue to print them until 1988. Al Hartley was the writer and artist for most of the comics. That name may sound familiar to fans of the Archie Comics. Al Hartley also worked for Archie Comics and this helped him to get approval to use the Archie characters for many of the comics. Many of these comics featured Archie and friends with overtly religious lessons. They show a very different side to Riverdale. For instance we learn that Riverdale has a red light district. We also get to see the kids in town pray a lot and are scriptorians. Of course you better be if you want to overcome all the vice from the outside world like "Occult Activity," and "Witchcraft." You might be surprised to learn that Al Hartley had previous worked on an adult comic before leaving his job and then finding Jesus. After that he w...

Image copyright Marvel/Disney. I am not sure what my first comic book was for sure. I know it was either a Superman, Batman, or Star Comic title though. The first two you probably already head but the third you might not be familiar with. Star Comics were an imprint of Marvel. They were popular in the 1980s. The imprint was focused on kids. Most of the comics produced were based on popular kids cartoon shows. They even had a number of original books. The imprint started in 1984 and lasted until 1988. Some of the comics would outlive the Star imprint and their later issues they would be Marvel comics instead. One of the more popular examples of this is the Silverhawks. Four titles were planned but never released. These titles were Commander USA, Christy, Little Wizards, and Young Astronauts. I was born when these first came out and was only four when they stopped. I do have memories of getting them when I was a kid. When I was that age though I did not have comic store in town so...

  I’m going to talk about my trips to Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park. You probably know it as Fake Disneyland. Fake Disneyland came to the world’s attention about a decade ago as clips online from news media around the world showed us what looked like a cheap knock-off of Disneyland. Disney threatened legal action and the park made changes. If you visited though you wouldn’t realize they had changed anything unless you saw how blatant it was before. It is easy to get to the park if you are in Beijing. It has its own subway stop. Just make sure you remember the real name Shijingshan or you will miss your stop if looking for a “Fake Disneyland” stop. The park has a small entrance fee but all the attractions cost tickets. There is no unlimited ride option. This is how most theme parks in China are unfortunately. When you first enter you can go left to backstage area that should be off limits but anyone can just run around in the behind the scenes areas if they...

Copyright Buena Vista Home Video. One of the biggest events of my childhood came in 1990 with the Saturday morning special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. This was no normal cartoon special. This was being broadcast multiple times and on every channel. As far as I knew that was the only time something like that ever happened. As a child I knew this was a big deal. To this day I think it was the only time that happened. What was so special that all the major networks would actually work together? It was the war on drugs. Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue featured all your favorite 80's and 90's cartoon characters to warn you of the dangers of drugs. In this particular case it was marijuana. The show featured many cartoon characters across the the networks. It had characters that were no longer even on TV. Some of the more popular characters to be featured include the Muppet Babies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Chipmunks, Alf, and many more. The story starts with...

Disney has just announced the next Star Wars films that will be released. Photo from https://www.amazon.com/FUZZY-EWOK-Star-Touch-books/dp/039487868X believed to be copyrighted by The Walt Disney Company From the classic 1980's children's book comes Wicket and the Dandelion Warriors. No one really knows for sure what this film is about because no one has read the book in the last 30 years. If it is successful though it will spawn a series of Ewok related movies based on classic Ewok books like Wicket Goes Fishing. Some industry experts suggest that Fuzzy As An Ewok would have been a better choice but  Disney says their touch technology is not yet ready for commercial production. They hope to have it ready in 3 years when they hope to release of Fuzzy As An Ewok. image copyrighted by The Walt Disney Company Darth Paploo will be the first in a series of more mature adult action films that take place in the Star Wars universe. It focuses on the Ewok Paploo as he t...

The 80's were the best time for toys and kids cartoons. But with so many great shows some are bound to be forgotten by many. One such show was Dino-Riders. Dino-Riders was a 1988 cartoon made to sell the toys by Tyco. I can recall them existing as toys and getting them on Christmas I don't know if I ever saw the cartoon until recently. The show only lasted for 13 episodes. The premise was that two fighting factions from the future were transported back in time to the age of the dinosaurs. The good guys were the Valorians. They looked like normal humans and they befriended the dinosaurs. The bad guys were known as the Rulons which were animal like. They used technology to subjugate the dinosaurs. While the cartoon only lasted 13 episodes the toy line lasted for 4 series from 1988-1990. During this time toys, coloring books, and other common kids products were made based on the franchise. Marvel even produced a short comic series. The Dino-Riders had and international p...

Today we are reviewing the books Disneyland Paris From Sketch To Reality by Alain Littaye and Didier Ghez. The book is among my favorite Disney books.  It is a hard back coffee table sized book. It is full of beautiful color photo including many two page spreads. The photos include concept art, construction work, behind the scenes, poster art, and pictures of the park as it is now. Many of the pictures you won't find anywhere else. If it was just a nice phonebook it would be a great book, but it goes beyond being a pretty book. The book also has lots of information about the creating the park from Imagineers who were there. The books has some great stories even die hard Disney fans are unlikely to have heard. The concept of the book is great as is the execution. It would be nice if Disney could make a book like this for every new project. A book on building all the parks, Star Wars Land, etc. For a book like this I would think $50 is a fair price usually. Some of...