House Of Mystery #114

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is see movies under the stars at my local drive-in theater. Fortunately for me there are three drive-ins still around here in the Kansas City area. During the 1950's and early '60's, many comic book covers depicted different goings on at a drive-in, usually involving aliens or monsters of some sort. This cover by the great Dick Dillin from September, 1961 is a perfect example. House Of Mystery was one of the two main horror/science fiction anthology titles DC put out at the time, the other being House Of Secrets. The stories were all pretty much the same but they had a very innocent feel to them that reflected the times perfectly. This issue makes me want to head out to the drive-in right now, without the monsters of course.

New Fantastic Four DVD

I just picked up the new two disc edition of the Fantastic Four movie and I just had to comment on two of the bonus features on disc 2. They're two of the best comic related documentaries I've ever seen. The first deals with the history of the FF comic, with in depth interviews with people like Stan Lee, Joe Sinnott, John Romita, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Rich Buckler, and many others. Stan's surprisingly candid in his recollections of the origins of the book. It covers the history of the series from 1961-2005.

The other documentary focuses on the life and art of the one and only Jack Kirby, who drew this early FF cover on the right, which was always one of my favorites. With help from his co-workers, family, and former assistants Mark Evanier and Steve Sherman, the hour long show features tons of pencil art, rare family photos, and personal remembrances about the King of Comics.

The FF movie itself is just OK. I'm curious to see how the sequel turns out. But this set is worth getting just for these two documentaries. They're worth the money just by themselves.