Tacos and Beer

DAREDEVIL, THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR — Issue no. 155, August 1978 / I’ve written about how Marvel had several regular reprint books in the late 1970s. Aside from the oversized MARVEL TREASURY series, Marvel was publishing monthly and bi-monthly books reprinting older stories focusing on specific characters, like MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (Hulk stories) and MARVEL’S GREATEST COMICS (Fantastic Four stories). I’ve also written about how these books were a key way for newer readers to read old Marvel stories, because trade paperbacks weren’t a thing back then. Which isn’t exactly true. This CBR article explains that there were a handful of Marvel trade paperbacks available by 1978. (It also explains the origin fo the term “trade paperback” as applied to comic book reprints.) Those early trades came out via Fireside Books (a division of Simon Schuster). Book: Daredevil, the Man Without Fear Issue No.: 155 Published: August 1, 1978 Title: “The Man Without Fear?” Cover Pri...

THE SPIDER-WOMAN — Issue no. 8, August 1978 / Issue no. 8 opens IN MEDIA RES, with Spider-Woman being held at gunpoint in a cabin in Oregon. I had to check the previous issue to make sure I didn’t forget some cliffhanger. This story eventually gets around to explaining the situation. Spider-Woman had rescued a guy who was trying to kill himself, only for him to tie her up and drag her to Oregon (I am assuming the suicide attempt happened in Los Angeles). He finally explains to Spider-Woman (and to us) that he was cursed for cowardliness during the American Revolutionary War and is now doomed to walk the earth forever unless he can find someone who truly cares for him. Basically, he needs to be loved to die. It’s macabre and a bit... Book: The Spider-Woman Issue No.: 8 Published: August 1, 1978 Titles: “The Man Who Could Not Die!” and “The Suit!” Cover Price: 35¢ Format: Original paper copy This book continues to perplex me, y’all. Issue no. 8 opens in med...

We lost an honest-to-goodness filmmaking giant when Roger Corman passed away on May 9. Corman was making horror and science fiction movies on shoestring budgets long before the big studios came in and started making those kinds of movies with monster budgets. And Corman also gave many renowned filmmakers and actors their first jobs in the industry — people like Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, and Jack Nicholson. I wrote a bit more about Mr. Corman for my Subspace newsletter . That newsletter also contains info on where you can watch several of Corman’s classic movies online for free.

When a song is built around samples, have you ever been curious what songs those samples came from? WhoSampled.com might be able to help you. That link goes to the WhoSampled.com Beastie Boys search, and the Beasties sampled a lot of cool stuff. If you’re interested in digging more into the Beastie Boys’ stuff, check out BeastieBoysAnnotated.com and “Every Sample from Beastie Boys’ ‘Paul’s Boutique’” on YouTube . IndieWire put together a nice list of the cameras and lenses used to shoot 59 of the movies that played at this year’s Cannes film fest.