Category: News

Actor Kevin McCarthy, made famous by his role of Dr. Miles Bennell in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, passed away this past Saturday in Cape Cod; he was 96 years old.

McCarthy, who has been acting since 1938, has had an amazingly long career, acting even to this year, with many roles under his belt in the 90’s as well. A look at his IMDB page includes roles in movies, television, and even some voice-over work. His notable roles included Uncle Walt in the Twilight Zone movie, roles in Innerspace, Dark Tower, The Howling, and even a role as Marilyn Monroe’s husband in the 1961 film “The Misfits”. 

And while some in the later generations may recognize him as the evil R. J. Fletcher of Weird Al’s cinematic opus, UHF, it would be his role in Body Snatchers that would prove to be his most memorable. McCarthy would end up lending his memorable “You’re next!” performance in numerous spoofs and sci-fi projects… he even made a cameo as Dr. Bennell in the ’78 Body Snatchers remake, starring Donald Sutherland. Topping the list of off cameos though, McCarthy ended up appearing as Dr. Bennell in the 2003 Looney Toons: Back in Action movie– still in glorious black and white.

Kevin was married twice, once to Augusta Dabney, and then to Kate Crane. He had five children. Our condolences to his family.

Welcome once again to MOONSTONE MONDAY, a spotlight on one of the most prolific modern publishers in the Pulp genre!  Interviews abound today from writers and staff involved in Moonstone’s comic line RETURN OF THE ORIGINALS!!! Our Featured Interview is Moonstone’s Main Man, JOE GENTILE!!! Click on the Interview tab and read words from Win Scott Eckert, Tim Lasiuta, Howard Hopkins, Eric Fein, and Aaron Shaps!  Also check out Barry Reese’s latest column for a tip of the hat to Moonstone on its handling of a classic character!  And check back in this evening for Reviews, Reviews, Reviews!!! All on ALL PULP and MOONSTONE MONDAYS!!

Artist David Burton has a special place in his heart for painting scenes and characters from classic pulp fiction.  Learn from his interview his technique of working on pulp art, his favorite characters, and the reasons he has a passion for this medium!  Click on the INTERVIEWS tab and enjoy the full conversation!

Spidey-Fans, make sure you’re up Friday morning for a chance to sneak a peek at the upcoming Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark on Good Morning America. The musical, which is rumored to be one of the priciest to swing into the Foxwoods Theatre, opens November 15. Lucky for all us musical theater geeks, director Julie Taymor and Spidey himself, Reeve Carney, will bring a solo song to GMA via a performance at the Hudson Theater, with fans invited to come down for the free show. We television viewers will enjoy a post-performance interview with the director and the authors of the music and lyrics, Bono and The Edge. Word has it that aside from this musical, both men dabble in rock and roll in a quartet by the name of U2.

While most comic fans are skeptical of their favorite web-spinning hero spinning songs and soliloquies on the Broadway stage, stranger things have become a success. Lest we forget, the Evil Dead Musical was damn good. So, before we light our torches, let’s give the ol’ webhead a chance to sing his spandex off.

UPDATE: So, we watched the telecast, action figure firmly placed in our palms, ready to watch our hero make his way to the stage. Would it be webtastic or a kill a little bit of our soul, like One More Day? Let’s let some pasty white people wax poetic first:

A “pop-up book” set? Those costumes? The Swiss Miss? Is this some kind of cruel joke? Is Norman Osbourne financing this play in hopes of murdering the wall-crawler on the stage? Our high hopes haven’t been crushed this hard since the dance sequence of Spider-Man 3: Attack of Emo Parker. And to put the final nail in the coffin? How about a song from the show:

Let’s be honest here. The song is actually catchy. And because it’s being performed with a rock band, with absolutely no context to the final play, we’ve no idea how terrible this will be once it’s sewn into the “pop-up book” scenery and gaudy costumes. Kudos to Bono and The Edge for writing a catchy rock song (a feat that shouldn’t be that hard, given their 20+ years doing it), but frankly we’re scared for the final product. A lanky rock singer running around in a body sock, whilst a cast of dancing, prancing chorusmen flail about over a rock-and-roll score? Someone give us a copy of the “Death of Gwen Stacy” so we can recall the last time Spider-Man was worth our fanfare.

Jordan Mechner’s Prince of Persia has been an acclaimed video game and he is one of the fortunate creators to be intimately involved in the adaptation from game to feature film. Mechner managed to write the screen adaptation, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton. The Disney feature was released to middling reviews and so-so box office in May and comes to home video tomorrow. Disney provided us with this conversation.

QUESTION: What were your feelings when you finally saw the film?

JORDAN MECHNER: Firstly, the original Prince of Persia was a character 40 pixels high on the Apple II screen, running and jumping. The technology at the time was quite primitive, I think in my mind I imagined a much grander spectacle, and to see Jake [Gyllenhaal] in the best shape of his life running around the rooftops of Morocco and doing parkour and all this stuff was more than I could imagine.

QUESTION:  What initially drew you to the setting of Ancient Persia? And how does that culture and mythology inspire you?

JORDAN MECHNER: I was inspired 25 years ago to make the game really by the tales of the Arabian Nights, and by old Persian legends like the Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings. And also those great old Hollywood swashbuckling movies like the 1940 Thief of Baghdad, by Alexander Korda.  As a kid I must have heard those stories, the storybook versions are in all of our cultural DNA. We know of that world without really knowing exactly where or when we first heard it.

QUESTION:  How did you start the world of Prince of Persia ?

JORDAN MECHNER: You go back to 1985 when I was right out of college and I took my brother down to the parking lot across the street from the high school. He was in a pair of baggy trousers and I had him run and jump and climb and fall down and I video-taped him doing these moves. Then I set about the three year process of bringing these animations into the computer and that was the first Prince of Persia . (more…)

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