Michael Chiklis Is....

The THING and Proud of It !

Michael Chiklis was born 1963 in Lowell, Massachusetts and grew up in Andover Massachusetts. His Greek American paternal family was from the Greek island of Lesbos.

Michael Chiklis went to New York City early in his career, and is more widely known for starring in two popular, but highly different, police television series: The Commish (1991–1995) and The Shield (2002—).

In 2005 he starred in Fantastic Four comic book movie as The Thing and will be returning in 2007 for the sequel. A fan of the comic book series, he informed his brother Peter when he was 18, that if there was ever a movie made of the Fantastic Four, he would play Ben Grimm, who is the alter ego of the Thing.

I am a life long fan of the Fantastic Four, starting with issue #3 back in 1962. At one time I had a complete collection of the FF comics, including the other comic book series starring the individual members in solo series, such as the Human Torch in Strange Tales, the Thing in Marvel Two-In-One as shown at the bottom left picture, etc.  The Thing is my favorite comic book character and I closely identified with him in my formative years.

At the 2004 SDCC, (San Diego Comic Con International), I was privileged to attend the first public presentation of the newly signed actors that were to play the FF in the movie. 

I was delighted to see that Michael Chiklis was chosen to play the Thing. He definitely looked like Ben Grimm from the comics, and the audience was told that the Thing would not be CGI like the Incredible Hulk in the earlier Hulk movie. I figured the character of the Thing would be well presented.  I was pleased that the Thing costume was made to look like the early Thing of the 1960's, it looked better on Chiklis.

Don't get me into the choices of the other actors for the film!  I already covered the choice of Jessica Alba as the Invisible Woman in an earlier blog!

I am looking forward to the 2007 FF movie, The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. In the teaser trailers the Surfer looks similiar to what we saw in the Terminator 2 movie, and looks good for the big screen.

 For those interested in the Marvel Two-In-One comic books just click on the comic book cover to the right, for Fantastic Four comics we have listed them in our eBay Featured Store and eBay Pro Store.

Michael

...That Lynda Carter...

Wonder Woman... Wotta Woman !!

NOW that I have your attention, this blog post is in addition to others that I have posted this past month covering the Women In Comic Book Movies, Comic Book TV Shows, and plain ol' Comic Books !

Lynda Carter first entered a local beauty contest and achieved her first national fame by winning the Miss World USA in 1972 representing  her state of Arizona.   After taking acting classes in New York acting schools, she started making appearances on TV shows such as Starsky and Hutch, and Cos, plus B-movies including Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw.

However, her acting career did not really take off until she landed her starring role in the Wonder Woman television series. Her performance endeared her to fans and the series lasted for three seasons.

For those interested in Wonder Woman AND other DC comic books, we have several for sale in our eBay Featured Store and eBay Pro Store.

Thanks for viewing our comic book blog post... feel free to post your comment now !

Michael

KIRSTEN DUNST...

AS MARY JANE WATSON...  

WILL BE CO-STARRING AGAIN IN THE NEXT SPIDER-MAN MOVIE... Which Is Based on the Comic Book Series

She will be rejoining several of the previous castmembers, plus newcomers to the film.

Kirsten was born in 1982 and got her start as a child fashion model at the age of three in television commercials.

In 1989, Dunst moved to the big screen. Note: For you anime lovers out there, she voiced the role of KiKi in 'Kiki's Delivery Service' also in 1989.

When she was first cast as Mary Jane Watson for the first Spider-Man movie, I was wondering how she would come across like a redhead, since she is blonde, but she really did look and act like Mary Jane of the comic books in the movie. I was pleased with her performance.

The funny thing is that in the upcoming movie Bryce Dallas Howard who plays Gwen Stacy is a red-head that plays the blonde part.... and Kirsten is blonde playing a red-head.... Go Figure !!   

Kirsten graduated high school in 2000, and was playing Mary Jane in 2002 and in Spider-Man 2 in 2004.  She really plays a wonderful Mary Jane role in my opinion, and I look forward to seeing her again the May 4th weekend, when the new movie opens...Spider-Man 3 with the Sandman & Venom, (see photo to the bottom right for Venom's darker tone of villain look).

For those interested in Spider-Man comic books, we have quite a few comics listed from Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man and other Spidey series in both our eBay Featured Store and eBay Pro Store.

Thanks for viewing this comic book blog post.... and feel free to comment!

Michael

What Am I Reading.....??

OK, I gotta admit it.... I am a sucker for Great Covers !

For those interested in Batman comic books we have several for sale in our eBay Featured Store.

Thanks for reading our blog post.... Feel Free to comment!

Michael (It's a lot easier today !)

Marshall Rogers....

Comic Book Artist Passes...

Marshall Rogers, born January 22, 1950 passed away March 25th.

Marshall had worked for DC & Marvel Comics since the 1970's.

Some of his earliest work was for Marvel's black and white magazine, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu where he drew an Iron Fist story. 

Working on DC's Detective Comics starring Batman is where Marshall's fame grew.   

My own experience was seeing his early run on volume 3 of the Silver Surfer comics, 1987 - 1989, (see cover bottom right), where he had a distinctive style, and worked closely with writer Steve Englehart on setting the pace for that series.

I didn't see Marshall at any of the San Diego Comic Con or other comic conventions during the years, so never met the man, but he was a proflic artist, only stepping away from comics for a while in the early 90's to work in the videogames industry.

Marshall recently drew the Marvel Westerns: Strange Westerns Featuring the Black Rider (shown above right) for Marvel Comics reuniting with Steve Englehart in an effort to re-establish that genre in today's market. 

Thanks for viewing this blog post and feel free to comment!  

Michael