Be Kind, Please Rewind: Favorites From Favorites

A little known fact about me is that my middle-name is Procrastination. My parents were able to glimpse into the future, and they saw that I would be the absolute slacker-est slacker in a family full of layabouts. Yes, I totally agree that it was a waste of their paranormal abilities. They could have been investing in Apple or preventing the birth of James Franco and saving us from a war with North Korea. Way to go, Mom and Dad. You've doomed us all.

Anyway.

This is a belated thank-you to a handful of incredible individuals who were kind enough to bless me with their friendships and their hand-me-down VHS. Analog bliss in the form of gifts from people who mean the world to me.

With the recent release of images from the latest installment in the series [Mad Max: Fury Road], it only makes sense to start with the most topical of treats. The copy of Mad Max (1979) on the left is one that I found at the thrift shop a while back. I feel like I may have shown it off before, but maybe I'm mistaken. I'm certainly too lazy to go back and check.

It's prettier "sister" to the right recently ended up part of my collection courtesy of Derek, The Goodwill Geek. I've ranted and raved about both the blog and the man before, but that won't stop me from doing so again. He's easily one of the most generous people I've encountered through my blogging here, but it's far from his best quality. Hilarious, and with a sense of aesthetic and taste that I can definitely admire, it's been an absolute blast getting to know him over the last year. Things have only gotten sweeter since he's joined up with the cast of Geek Fallout, which means I'm allowed the opportunity to actually chat with him on a mostly regular basis.

Another goodie from Derek, we have a nearly-forgotten gem from 1987, The Visionaries. Based on a stellar toy-line from the same year, it featured several warriors with various abilities they could harness through the use of their hologram chest-plates. The VHS was released by Hi-Tops Video, which was truly a mark of quality for the mid-'80s. They were also responsible for releasing tapes for other animated programs like My Pet Monster, Madballs and The Inhumanoids.

Remember when I mentioned earlier that I was a Class-A Procrastinator?

These two tapes were gifted to me by Laura [aka: Boo Bobby] back during the holiday. The Christmas holiday. It took me six months to finally get around to highlighting my two favorite tapes; both of them are pure nostalgic catnip for me. I was a huge fan of Ernest P. Worrell and his constant misadventures. Whether it was saving Christmas or developing super-powers after a failed execution [yes, seriously], I couldn't get enough of Jim Varney's wacky alter-ego. Ernest Goes to Camp (1987) is apparently the best received film in the franchise, and I was thrilled to add it to my collection.

Anything F.H.E [Family Home Entertainment] immediately catches my attention; the company's presence on the shelves at my childhood video store was overwhelming. When it also happens to be a Thundercats release, well, maybe I should have saved that catnip quip for this. It was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid, but still manages to enthrall me to this day. Especially when it involves Monkian and a tyrannosaurus rex.

Summer has, thankfully, brought Laura back into the blogging fold. I've been lucky enough to keep in touch with her during the quiet periods thanks to other social medias, but it's doubly nice to see her writing again and sharing lovely pictures of her projects and her family.

Delicious is the first word that comes to mind when I look at this limited-edition Halloween: 10-31-78 box set. Released by Anchor Bay to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of John Carpenter's Halloween, it was a total rarity during the days of VHS. The set contained two tapes, which featured a number of interviews, deleted scenes and making-of featurettes. The type of stuff that is all too common nowadays on DVD and Blu-Ray releases, but not so with the limitations of the VHS-format.

Also, I just love the orange. I'm a total sucker for tapes molded in a color other than black, and these just scream jack o'lanterns and falling leaves and Michael Myers stalking his prey.

Gorgeous.

I may not have mentioned, but both the Halloween tapes and the one you see above originated from the dorkiest locale around, the home of Miss M. I don't have much to say about this copy of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), except that I am in love with the New Arrival sticker on the front of the box. Probably more than the film itself, and I adore any movie that features Bobby Budnick and Don and Dan Stanton.

I do, however, have plenty to say about Miss M, and you better believe that it is all fantastic. It's hardly earth-shattering news, because I'm certain this wonderful, little community of ours is already aware of how great she is. But she's great; genuine and caring, one of the friendliest people I've ever known. Imaginative in the best way possible, it's been an inspiration reading her blog and the tall-tales she spins about her toy counterpart. It means the world to me that I get to call her my friend.

Man, favorites from favorites really should have been favorites from friends. I'd go back and change it, but then I'd be going against my nature and my middle-name.

Image is Everything: An Introduction

A couple weeks back, I made an appearance on an episode of Geek Fallout: The Comic Book Episodes where we discussed Image Comics. You can listen to it here.

As a young comic reader in the early to mid-nineties, the formation of Image Comics was an absolutely mind-blowing event. Top talents from Marvel, my one true love at the time, jumped ship to form their own company without all the Comics Code restrictions and editorial interference. Regardless the quality of several titles, I still dove right in and devoured most of the books that this newly founded publisher put on the shelves. But my love and admiration for everything eXtreme had to start somewhere, right?

Yup, that's Spawn issue number three, dated August 1992, and it's the first Image comic that I ever picked up. It's not the exact copy; the original is tucked away in a bin somewhere, but I found this second copy in the dollar-bins at my local comic shop the other day and couldn't leave it behind. It's not a particularly thrilling issue, but I suffer severe bouts of nostalgia just flipping through it. Something that's worth the price of admission alone.

Obviously, this is -very- early in the title's publication, a time when Todd McFarlane was at his absolute best. Hot off a super-successful run on Marvel's The Amazing Spider-Man, his new venture was easily one of the most anticipated of Image's announced books and would serve as one of the company's two launch-titles [along with Rob Liefeld's Youngblood]. The promise of occult-based ultra-violence and heavy melodramatics, paired with McFarlane's uniquely gritty art-style, was all that was needed to catch my attention.

Like many of those early Image comics, this particular issues doesn't hold up very well. That's okay, though, because it served its true purpose all those years ago. It hooked me, reeled me in to this world of grim anti-heroes and cyborg-mutants, alien cops and edgy vigilantes, and it's refused to let me go, even two decades later.

Stay tuned, true-believers, because there's a lot more style-over-substance to come..!

Deathlok Wants to Live at Your House: The Results!

Hey, I'm a day late on posting this.

That's par for the course around these parts, so apologies to any newcomers that were expecting me to be prompt. It rarely happens because I'm the worst. Except when I'm the best and giving away free stuff like comics and junk. You get used to it, I guess.

Right so, thank you to all for taking the time to check out the blog, and for leaving comments and entering the contest. Basically, everything that you do and for everything that you are. It turns out that I can't be the best after all, because you beat me to that top spot. You're the best.

And because you're all top of the heap, a-number-one, king of the hill, I've got a little special something for each and every one of you.

Comics for everybody..!

I did mention before that I buy a lot of comics. So many, remember? And since I've got more than enough already, and am buying more all the time, well it only makes sense to part with more than a handful. That means that everyone that entered into the contest is gonna end up receiving a small assortment of back-issues. Floppies for all, I say.

All you have to do to claim this consolation prize is send me an email to itstrashculture[at]gmail.com with an address where I can ship 'em out to. Feel free to include a small list of favorite characters or titles, and I'll try to dig up something good and specially chosen for each of you.

Of course, unfortunately, while everyone is gonna walk away with something, only one of you can actually receive the Deathlok Lives trade that was pictured in the original contest-post. I randomly drew the winner's name earlier today, and that lucky participant was none other than Patrick C.

So, Patrick, if you could please send me an email to claim your prize, I'll get that out to you ASAP.

Again, thank you all for visiting the blog, and be sure to keep a look out for next month's special One Year Anniversary Free Giveaway..!

Deathlok Wants to Live at Your House

I buy a lot of comic books.

Like, so many of them.

Sometimes this means that I end up with duplicates; issues I had forgotten I'd read before purchased for a second [or even third!] time. Part of my attempt to avoid becoming a comic-related hoarder has been stuffing random floppies into the free giveaways and consolation prizes from previous contests.

Yeah, you might have noticed that there haven't been a whole lot of giveaways/contests lately. I mean, really, there hasn't been a whole lot of content here on the blog these last couple months, so it only makes sense that the freebies would have fallen by the wayside, too. Next month marks the one-year anniversary of my first "One Man's Trash..." Free Giveaway, though, so I'm gearing up for a Godzilla-sized contest to commemorate and celebrate the occasion.

For now, I've decided to run a little comic-related giveaway to hold you all over until then.

If you follow me over on Twitter [@itstrashculture] or Instagram [also, @itstrashculture], you've probably noticed that I've been splurging quite a bit on books from my local comic shop's dollar-bins. I've found tons of ridiculously great issues to add to my collection; the type of stuff that I plan to hold onto forever and ever.

But there's the occasional books that I have no real use for that prove to be too good a deal to pass on.

Like the Captain America: Deathlok Lives trade paperback that you see above.

Published by Marvel in 1993, it collects issues #286, 287 and 288 from the original Captain America series. The three-part story arc finds The Star-Spangled Avenger flung into the far-future and teaming-up with the first incarnation of Deathlok, Luther Manning. It's an awesome little tale that I'd recommend to any fans of Cap [or Deathlok!], and I'm giving someone a chance to win this very copy.

Oh, and I'll definitely be throwing a few more random floppies in the "prize-pack", as if you needed any more incentive to take part in the giveaway.

All you have to do is leave a comment below, or shoot an email to itstrashculture[at]gmail.com. Feel free to talk anything comic-related, whether it's a favorite time-travel story or the first Captain America issue you ever read or whatever.

I'll be announcing the contest's winner next Saturday, June 14th, so you can enter any time between now and next Saturday morning. Keep your eyes peeled here for that announcement, and hopefully some fresh content will make an appearance in the meantime!

The Cool, the Collected and the Terrapin

Recently.

I guess it was recently, maybe, at least, Brian from over at Cool and Collected decided it was time to part ways with some of the excess toys he's accumulated over the last year. An entire basement filled to the brim with the type of stuff I could only dream about owning. Everything from Star Wars to G.I.Joe to my very own, very-current obsession: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

There's no need to rehash the tale of my budding collection. Let's just get right into taking a look at all the goodies I managed to score from the man who brought us all together.

Yes, I've mentioned before that I like to piece together my own collection from thrifty discoveries out in the wild. Occasionally, though, I stumble across an opportunity that's too good to pass up. Brian's generosity, offering up the goods for a fraction of the cost to his fellow collectors, was definitely one of those times. There's some key figures that I haven't had any luck finding at the flea market or thrift shops, like the Raphael figure you see above, that I've been itching to add to the trash-pile.

I often browse websites, eBay and Etsy and other shops, picking stuff out and creating small lots of action figures and other collectibles. I'll go so far as to add them to my cart, and then eventually I'll delete the whole thing. Exerting just the tiniest bit of self-control in my own sad way. I almost did the same thing here, putting together a fantasy-list of figures to inquire about, but not following through.

Until I saw Baxter Stockman in all his hybrid fly-man glory.

He's absolutely one of my favorite characters from the original TMNT animated series and toy-line. I knew when I saw him lined up with all the other figures that Brian was looking to purge, that there was no going back. That he had to be mine.

Oh yes, he had to be mine.

Another insect that's after my heart and probably my blood, too. Scumbug here was once a man [wassss once a man], an exterminator who found himself mutated, bonded with the cockroach he was aiming to maim. Becoming a literally bug-eyed bandit; out to wreak havoc and skitter away when Donatello turns on the lights. I'm pretty sure Donnie can find him lurking beneath the fridge.

Here's Ray Fillet, the heroic man-manta-ray, who I desperately pined away for as a wee little trash-boy. I loved his adventures with the Turtles in the pages of the Archie Comics' TMNT series, as well as the spin-off The Mighty Mutanimals, where he led his own team of mutant heroes. I simply adored his devilish [devil-fish?] smile. Also, he's teal!

Teal is tops, brah.

Confession time.

I've only seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) once, way back when it was first released on VHS. Despite being a huge fan of the franchise, I was bordering on teen-hood when the film hit theaters, so opted out of seeing it during its initial run. I honestly don't remember much except for time-travel to feudal Japan and Casey Jones babysitting some samurais.

And even though there's no love for the third Turtles flick, I found myself craving these two "movie-style" action figures. I kinda' dig Mikey in samurai garb, and I couldn't possibly resist Splinter with his faux-fur and clothe robe. It's a definite improvement over the original release Splinter, who I remember being completely naked for a majority of the time that I owned him.

I wasn't that weird a kid, really, I promise.

Book Clubs Are Junk: Golden Daze

I buy way more books than I read. So much literature, in fact, I doubt that I'll ever get around to finishing most of them. It's the same sort of borderline-hoarder behavior that I exhibit when it comes to VHS; stockpiling titles for rainy days that never seem to come. Eventually, though. Someday, I'll continue to tell myself, even though I know the sad truth that those days will never come. Those pages will remain untouched, unread, left to yellow and wither to dust. Everything is dust.

Normally, when it comes to books, I tend to gravitate towards movie novelizations, sci-fi and fantasy, pulp trash and early cyberpunk. The type of stuff I feel I should have been reading when I was a teenager, back when I used to devour title after title, preferring the company of a good read over my high-school peers. It's rare that I break my normal thrift-habits, never venturing into departments or browsing shelves outside my comfort-zones.

But then, sometimes, I see the type of stuff that my blogging peers are scoring out in the wild. My insane jealousy at their discoveries forcing me to seek fantastic nuggets of nostalgia in all the wrong places.

Like the kids' book section.

It's a terrifying proposition; rifling through shelves of children's titles is risky business. The potential danger of discovering a decade-old picture book that's somehow still sticky with bits of food or snot or I don't even wanna contemplate the other options. Or there could be an exciting find ruined by a torn cover or crayon doodles littering every page.

Why even bother..?

Well, I bothered because sometimes there's gold lurking in them thar hills.

More specifically, Golden Look-Look Books.

These, like their Little Golden Book brethren, were an absolute staple of my childhood. Often featuring characters from films and television programs, they were "designed to appeal to the ever-widening interests of children three to eight years old". They also appeal to a thirty-something year old with a penchant for collecting absolute junk.

Let's see what I found.

Hey, it's future stars of the silver-screen, Jem and the Holograms.

I stumbled upon these about midway though my salvage mission and immediately knew there was no way I was leaving them behind. I never had much of a fondness for Jem and her fellow band-mates, but I'm always a sucker for anything '80s "retro". Plus, I know a couple folks who will definitely appreciate these more than I ever could, so this pair of pop-heavy adventures will find themselves on the move sooner rather than later.

I actually owned The Great Mouse Detective years back, despite never actually sitting down and watching the film it's based off of. My inner Vincent Price fan-boy has been berating me over that fact for years now, but I doubt it's an omission that I'll ever rectify. I'll just have to settle for occasionally flipping through this book for the rest of my life. I only hope that Vincent's ghost can forgive me.

Oliver & Company (1988) is another animated flick I somehow avoided during the heydays of VHS. There's snippets of plot that somehow burned into my brain; and I know that Cheech Marin supplied the voice of the chihuahua, but that could just be my affinity for stereotyping. I mean, if the movie had been released two decades later, I'm sure they would have cast George Lopez or something.

Oh, wait.

Sorry, Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008).

The real star of this show is easily The Penguin's Plot, which is mostly based on the brilliant Bat-sequel from 1992, Batman Returns. Retroactively removing Catwoman and Max Shreck from the story doesn't seem to negatively impact the dramatic elements of this tale, and it's possible Tim Burton could have learned something from that fact.

The lesson is less Christopher Walken and more Vincent Schiavelli, less Pfeiffer and more Ice Princess.

We're actually moving away from the Golden Look-Look titles and into new territory, even though the faces may seem awfully familiar. I can't say I cared much for Heathcliff and his junkyard-dwelling, feline-friends, but his cartoon series definitely had one of my all-time favorite theme-songs. I also appreciate how Marvel Books didn't appear too concerned that they were publishing a knock-off of the Golden titles, since this is billed as being "A Big Looker Storybook". Ballsy move, guys.

I adored anything Muppets back in 1985, and the Fraggles were far from an exception. And even though I probably would have preferred the stories that revolved around Sprocket or The Doozer Who Didn't, I'm very okay with Red Fraggle and her adventures in The Cave of the Lost Fraggle.

Still, it would have been nice to see an appearance from Marjory the Trash Heap.

Last and possibly least is a Disneyland Record and Book of The Grasshopper and the Ants. I am way too familiar with this fable thanks to grade-school and old storybook collections and, naturally, the Disney Silly Symphonies short from the mid-'30s that this is based on. Digging through stacks of other children's titles, this one jumped out at me because it also included the original 33-record with it. I can't find any trademark dates anywhere on the book or the record, but a quick search seems to indicate that this particular release is from sometime in the '70s.

I'm not sure how I find myself feeling nostalgic for items that are older than I am, but here we are.

There we go.

To dust.

Everything is dust.

Farewell and Adieu, Building 19

The post five months in the making.

No, it's actually the post a year in the making.

Yeah, it's officially been one year since I first bored you to tears with my tales of trash. A whole twelve months of poorly constructed sentences, drag anecdotes and awful photographs of junk that only I could care about. We can only hope that the next year [and all the years that follow!] brings more highlights from my personal trash collection and so much more of my trademark self-deprecation.

Speaking of the trash collection, some of you might remember that the blog started with a single post that took a good look at the handful of goodies I was able to pick-up at my beloved Building 19. It would have been nice to celebrate the blog's first full year by returning to the place of its birth and partying down like Adam Scott and Lizzy Caplan.

It would have been nice.

Unfortunately, Building 19 closed its doors for the last time back in December.

I know that for most people, this was not exactly upsetting news. There aren't many who gravitate to businesses like Building 19; liquidation outlets filled to the brim with long-outdated wares. The type of stuff that sat on shelves for months and years for a reason. But it's the bizarre and often surprising treasures that I frequently found lurking within that drew me back time and again during my lifetime.

Plus, it's the place that I, as a budding comic-book collector, was able to dig through dozens of long-boxes of books priced at a mere eight-cents apiece. They'd purchased the entire inventory of a comic shop that had closed due to the market crash during the mid-'90s, and so I was able to go home with a couple stacks of vintage comics for a few measly bucks. I owe my lifelong love of titles like Avengers Spotlight and Infinity Inc. to that one single back-issue buying spree.

Building 19 meant something to me, I guess.

Which is precisely why, only a week before its last day, I made a voyage to mecca. All for a chance to score big one final time. To share with you the type of stuff that will now be just a little more difficult to find out in the wild. It's the exact sort of trash that spawned this blogging monstrosity, and I'm glad to be able to take the time to pay tribute to the place where it all started.

My childhood was planted firmly in the '80s; double-digit ages hit pretty quickly when the next decade rolled around, but that didn't stop me from indulging in kid-oriented franchises even when I was well past the target audience's age-group. It shouldn't be too surprising that I was keen, even well into my teens, on animated programs like Double Dragon and CatDog.

The former should look pretty familiar to long-time readers, 'cause yes, that's another pack of Double Dragon pogs. Not entirely unlike the pack I bought and blogged about last year. And the latter, which is new to me, shouldn't be too surprising a purchase either. My love for decades-old party supplies is well-documented.

These paper plates, featuring the Biker Mice From Mars, certainly fall into the same category. I picked up two packs of them this time around, but it's far from the first time they've found their way into my collection. I probably have close to a dozen of these sitting in a box, waiting for me to throw the absolute greatest party ever. Maybe for next year's celebration.

Here's some random books?

Alien Encounters was published in the early '90s, and reminded me way too much of my brief obsession with Robert Stack and Unsolved Mysteries. The program terrified me whenever it moved into extraterrestrial territory or ghost stories, but that didn't stop me from constantly tuning in or wanting to be a paranormal investigator as a pre-teen.

Disney's Mighty Ducks was a cartoon series that deviated like crazy from the feature-film series that it owes its existence to. Instead of featuring Emilio Estevez and a hockey team consisting of scrappy, under-privileged youths and Pacey from Dawson's Creek, the animated series centered around the exploits of a group of anthropomorphic ducks from outer-space who, uh, also play hockey for some reason. The book also features a dragon!

Watch out, Chris Evans! The identity of the true Winter Soldier has been revealed, and it's Captain Canuck!

This coloring [not colouring, you weird Canadians!] and activity book features the premiere comic-book hero from The Great White North. I vaguely recall seeing random issues of his title as a kid, but I can't say I ever read about his exploits in the far-future of 1993. I imagine he protected the world from evil Americans who prefer their own beer to that of their northern neighbors. Like that cold-hearted bastard John Candy in Canadian Bacon (1995).

Man, I really splurged on terrible books, didn't I?

This is the novelization of The Reunion, a film produced and released by WWE Studios in 2011. Naturally, it stars the biggest name in all of professional wrestling, John Cena, who is joined by Ethan Embry wearing a fedora. I like to imagine the two of them teaming-up to dominate the tag-team division, and then going home and watching all thirteen episodes of Freakylinks while spooning on the couch.

Which is probably-definitely a million times better than the actual plot of the film.

I'm only now kicking myself for waiting so long to write about the wonderful and horrible discoveries made during my last trip to Shangri-La. While I was sitting around watching reruns of Night Court, some guy named Derek decided to rise from the ashes like a phoenix, and start posting again on his old blog, Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks. And, of course, the jerk decided to buy his own copy of Milk Mustache Mania and feature it in his latest post.

I can't compete with his blogging abilities, so NEVERMIND INTERNET PRETEND I SAID SOMETHING AWESOME AND CLEVER ABOUT THIS.

These were the final four copies of the Dick Tracy novelization that they had left on the shelf. It's pretty upsetting, because I had planned to grow old, visiting the store every year for the sole purpose of buying a copy. Now that dream is over and the insect is awake.

The insect's name is Pruneface, I think.

There was no way that I was gonna leave Building 19 this final time without a VHS in my pile of purchases. It was absolute slim pickings, though; a far cry from just a few years back, when I would have had dozens of titles to choose from. Still, I didn't do too bad. Alien Empire was a short-lived BBC documentary series from 1995 that took a look at the world of insects that weren't named after bad-guys from Dick Tracy.

I was huge into Sailor Moon when it first started airing in syndication here in the States. The years prior were spent trying to absorb as much anime as possible, which was a pretty difficult task in the days before streaming media and immediate internet access. So, when DiC Entertainment brought the program to American audiences, I immediately fell for it. Back then, I was known to buy anything related to Sailor Moon that I could find. That's not quite the case these days, but I still like to occasionally show some love to a program that was near and dear to a newly teenaged Trash Man.

The grand total for everything I grabbed that day came to a whopping three-dollars and thirteen cents. It's the exact type of thrifty shopping "adventure" that I'm going to find happening less, now that I've lost one of my favorite destinations.

So, here's to you, Building 19. Thank you for decades of "Good Stuff Cheap".

Sob.

We're gonna need a bigger box of tissues.