Okay, we admit it. We are helpless before our addiction. Jack Kirby meets Jim Henson with Kermit as Mister Miracle and Miss Piggy as Big Barda. I presume Oberon is the janitor who cleanes up backstage at The Muppet Show theater.

via My Junk Drawer – Miracle Frog and Pig Barda. Commission. 8×10”.

One of the joys of the current Blu-ray era is that studios have been delving into their libraries and restoring gems, releasing them with varying degrees of love and care. We’ve recently seen, for example, the arrival of musical greats West Side Story and My Fair Lady. But studios have also been working to bring back the really good films that have been somewhat forgotten. They may not get the deluxe restoration or bonus features, but it’s nice to have clean prints and high definition editions so we can still enjoy them at home. I’m reminded of all this because out now is the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. This film, starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, is based on a novel and was one of my favorite films of the 1970s. I was interested to see the Tony Scott remake a few years back but longed for the original which I finally tracked down. I watched it and felt incredibly nostalgic.

The film is far from perfect, but is an excellent time capsule of New York City in the mid-1970s, as crime was rampant, the city was dirty, and the public servants were rumpled and dogged. Four men with colorful pseudonyms — Mr. Green (Martin Balsam); Mr. Grey (Hector Elizondo); Mr. Brown (Earl Hindman); and Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw) — took possession of the subway designated Pelham One Two Three. They make demands of cash, threatening the passengers’ lives. On the other end is the MTA’s Lt. Zach Garber (Matthau), trying to determine how they could pull off the hijacking with such precision. It had to be an inside job and the hunt is on. Amusingly, a delegation from Japan is visiting the MTA control center just as all hell breaks loose and provides some stereotypical comic relief with a killer punchline. The film is filled with a wondefrul supporting cast, from Kenneth McMillan to Jerry Stiller.

A cash-strapped New York has one hour to assemble a million dollars cash and deliver it to the subway. Some of the most knowing sequences are set at the home of the mayor (Lee Wallace, who also was Gotham City’s Mayor in Batman), surrounding by his chief aide (Tony Roberts) and his wife (Doris Roberts).

As directed by Star Trek veteran Joseph Sargent, the film is tense and atmospheric, restrained in the action but with enough humor to make it feel real.

The transfer is solid without being perfect, the original’s graininess and subtle colors are nicely preserved. 20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment has included the original trailer as the sole extra.

Seeing this film in comparison with the 2009 remake is a fasciating example of how our moviemaking has changed, along with audience expectations. Now we get a lot of crashes and cursing and time devoted to bringing the characters to an approximation of three-dimensions. Still, the original remains superior for the tension it creatres and the cold, calculating Shaw matching wits with Matthau, a far more interesting matchup than Denzel Washington and John Travolta.

…we present to you this wonderful work by Amy Mebberson, who cut her teeth on British Muppet Mash-ups with Muppet Sherlock Holmes for BOOM! Do yourself a favor and read her charming webcomic Thorn.

Hmmm. It’s been rather quiet, but over the past several weeks Marvel’s been cancelling titles steadily, one or two at a time.

What’s leaving? Let’s see… All Winners Squad, Alpha Flight, Black Panther The Most Dangerous Man Alive, Daken Dark Wolverine, Destroyers, Ghost Rider, Herc, Iron Man 2.0, The Punisher (MAX), Victor Von Doom, Villains For Hire, and X-23. A few of these titles were either mini-series, now castrated, or never released in the first place.

Many speculate S.H.I.E.L.D., Generation Hope, and Deadpool MAX are not long for this world as all three have direct sales figures in this same neighborhood – around 15,000 to 20,000 copies. More interesting (at least to me), Ghost Rider’s last issue will be released around the time the second movie comes out. That’s hardly a vote of confidence in their film division’s latest gem.

Separating the wheat from the chaff has long been a comics publishing tradition, and doing so in such a manner as to generate consternation and paranoia among both the creative community and the few surviving retailer outlets is standard operating procedure.

Twelve titles and counting is a lot, but I am certain it does not represent a decision to publish fewer titles. Fewer money losing titles, sure, and that’s an act of business sanity. But there are at least two very significant reasons why Marvel will simply replace them with other stuff come the spring.

The first is called “the fourth of May.” No, that’s not another X-Island Fear style event; that’s the release date for The Avengers movie. Note Marvel has yet to cancel any titles with the word “Avengers” in it, even though Avengers Academy and some of the current Avengers mini-series sell in that red zone.

The second is called “the third of July.” You guessed it; that’s when The Amazing Spider-Man movie is foisted upon an all-too-suspecting public.

If Marvel’s past habits remain intact – and by “past” I mean “2011” – we can expect to see a plethora of sundry Avengers and Spider-Man movie tie-ins… like, say, The Scarlett Spider.

Of course, most comics publishers would murder their aged grandmothers and their puppies for sales figures in the realm of those now-deceased Marvel titles. I look forward to their organizing an “Occupy Marvel Comics” encampment.

Historically, DC and Marvel go through this housecleaning OCD at roughly the same time, a remarkable coincidence by the standards of anti-trust law. This time, maybe not. DC’s only now beginning to sense which of their “New 52” titles are losing steam, although with the massive talent changes in that line it does seem they’re busy rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Nobody – certainly nobody in upper management at DC – expected all 52 to be successful, and if they maintain that “52” campaign they’ll just replace this fall’s losers with next summer’s losers.

This is the comic book food chain. Eat what you like while the food’s on your plate.

THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil