That's because we also receive in the mail, (and email), copies of comic books and graphic novels that are sent in for possible mention / review in our blog. So not wanting to get too backed up on reviewing comics here...I'm posting my review on the newest creation published by Firetower Studios:  Princeless #1.

My thanks to Jeremy Whitley, who gave me a heads up that the issue was on its' way to me!

Here are my thoughts on this first issue of a new series:

First of all, I noticed that although the Publisher is Firetower Studios, the actual comic book was published by Ka-Blam, a quality printer, of whom I've had the pleasure of meeting the company rep at a recent comic con.   So I knew the printing was going to be a quality piece.

The front cover would be what would either grab my interest OR not when standing at my LCBS, so I place big emphasis on the front cover, even though it was mailed to me for review...

The cover was not overpowering yet not understated, and the comic book title of 'Princeless' had a striking presence about it.  Caught my eyes!  Good idea on that font and size and diference in colors used for the 'Prince' and 'less' part of the title!

However the fact that it was issue #1 almost passed me by, as it was in the company logo at the top left.  Not knowing whether or not that was on purpose, I'll let that ride for now...

That's because #1 issues are usually either going to be sought after, or because it is the first of an unknown quality, it may be passed over...

The artwork on the front cover by Luis Franco showed me what to expect when I turned the front cover.

What I saw though on the splash page was a diferent style than the front cover! No worries, it turned out that the splash page was a page in a story that the mother of the Princess was reading to the Princess.  Okay, I'll go with that...

I continued reading, skipping the inside cover welcome page for the moment...

So what was the story about?!

Here's what was said in the press release:

Written by Jeremy Whitley and Illustrated by Luis Franco, Princeless is a story of and for princesses who do not need to be rescued. The first issue is an introduction to young Princess Adrienne, who despises the tales of fairytale princesses, only to end up in one herself.

Well, being an older guy who reads a LOT of different comics and graphic novel genres, I found the first story arc in this series to be one that I would give to those that enjoyed sequential artwork stories, fairytales, and reading matter to help young girls to formulate their ideas about the world.

Why?  Because in 'Princeless', the story is a like a new 'fairy tale' but with a twist!  Princess Adrienne is first shown as a young girl who rejects the premise of a fairytale that her mother was reading to her.  The fairytale princess in the story was locked away in a tower, guarded by a dragon, waiting to be rescued by her prince.

However, Princess Adrienne is shown a few years later... and is in the same predicament that the fairytale princess was in.

How she resolves this is what the first issue is about... No Spoilers here! You gotta read it! LOL!

The writer of this comic book issue, Jeremy Whitley, updates this fairy tale like story by not using the typical damsel in distress storyline.  Indeed the princess is dark skinned and possibly quite capable of rescuing herself... but does she?

I mentioned earlier the style that artist Luis Franco uses in this issue.  Yes, it could be described as a 'simple style' due to the 'cartoonish look' that he uses. However that style is one that could / should appeal to the younger readership of this comic book and still keep the older readers satisfied.

I'm OK with this intro to the series.  One of the reasons I say OK is because I don't know how long of a series or a mini-series this is meant to be as a casual reader.  Yes, I could have asked the writer of the issue what is intended since he sent it to me for review.  But I am reviewing this issue as a buyer / reader of the comic book and finished not knowing what I was getting into for additional stories.  Being a 'continued' story I knew there would be at least a second issue...

Yes, I'm sure that sales will affect how many issues will be published in this storyline.  But anymore, a lot of readers of a new publication want to know if it is a mini-series, limited series, or a full blown unscheduled ending monthly or bi-monthly series. So I think that is fair to ask.

However that didn't stop me from liking the first issue as a reviewer of the comic book.  I found it to be a good read in its' genre. It is a good stand alone start for the series.

For more on Princeless and Firetower Studios visit:

http://www.firetowerstudios.com

I have not blogged about this company's publications before, so here is some info on them:

Company Overview: Firetower Studios is an independent venture begun by Writer Jeremy Whitley and Illustrators Jason Strutz and Charlie Harper. Firetower Studios was created on a Thursday in 2009 at the Southpoint Mall Food Court in Durham, NC.

Mission: Firetower is committed to producing intelligent, thought provoking, and quality comics as well as books, art, and other fine products.

Products: Currently Firetower is producing two ongoing series: Jeremy and Jason’s “The Order of Dagonet” and Jeremy and Charlie’s “The Dreamers’ Daughter”.

You can also interact with the writer and artists of this company. If YOU are a Facebook Member feel free to 'Like' / 'Fan' them at their Facebook Fan Page by clicking here!

My thanks to Jeremy for submitting the 1st issue of this comic book title!

~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com

Note: Our online comic book store was still 'open' for business last weekend while we were at Wizard World Anaheim Comic Con, as the con was only a three day con. We caught up with shipping orders as of Tuesday the 20th. So if you purchased something and paid for it during that time...Your order is already on its' way to you! If YOU haven't bought from us yet, comics and graphic novels similar to ones that we review here can be found in our online store at:

http://www.comicbookscircus.com/

 

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"Hammering Out the Web For You Since May 12th, 1998!"       Note: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:     Make It So Marketing Inc. PO Box 130653 Carlsbad, CA 92013

Check Out More Of Our Own Endeavors:   Yeah, that's me in the photo shown to the left, taken at the 1973 San Diego Comic Con! I first set up as a 'dealer' at the 1972 SDCC at the El Cortez Hotel. So I've been around comic conventions for a little while, LOL! Tina and I now have an on-line exhibitor table at the first "virtual" comic con titled the "Facebook Comic Con" (FBCC)! You can view our table and interact with us there on Facebook by clicking this link.  So if YOU are a Facebook member, please 'join' our Facebook Comic Con - Make It So Marketing exhibitor table for updates, specials, links to this blog, and other wall comments that we post every day!    Also, if you are a Facebook member and would like to join my Facebook Network, feel free to send a 'friend request' to 'Michael D Hamersky'.         ------------------- Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review! I've made a special blog post about: "How To Best Submit YOUR Publication For Possible Review!" for those creators / publishers that would like to possibly have their publications mentioned or reviewed. Just click on the link provided in this paragraph! ~Michael @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com   WEB PAGE NOTE:  This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently. The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768. NOTE; All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

 

Well, as I mentioned on this past Monday's blog...we are back from that show, and the fifth blog in a series that I want to post here is still timely after Wednesday night's BIG Announcement on my Facebook member and Group Pages, (as seen near the bottom of this entry)!

That's because Malachi Throne, who portrayed an unusual role in the 1960's Batman TV Show, is the Feature of today's blog!

I say 'unusual' role, because the role that Malachi Throne played was at first 'uncredited' as to whom the actor was, as seen to the left.  You should have read who was thought to have been playing the role at the time!

False Face was the villain in episodes #17 & 18 in the First Season of the Batman TV Series that started airing January 12th of 1966.

So he was an early villain in the TV Series. When the series first aired there was some concern that another Batman villain, that of Two-Face was thought to be "too gruesome and violent" to be a villain on a show that was aimed at both a younger audience and adults!  So False Face was used instead. However the plastic mask was kind of scary in itself!  Originally the character False Face was to be done with makeup, but for whatever reasons the plastic mask was used.

It wasn't until the end of the second of the two part episodes that Malachi Throne was credited, as seen to the left!

There have been earlier interviews with Malachi about these two episodes, so I'm not going to repeat the why and how this was done.

Instead I'll just mention that this was the only time that the villain False Face was seen as a guest villain of the week during the three seasons the show was on. For more on the series itself, please see this Wikipedia entry by clicking this link.

As a side note...The original series ran on the ABC Network from January 12, 1966 – March 14, 1968. There were 120 episodes aired during the three seasons that the show was broadcast.

Of course most 'mainstream' people are aware that there are comic books, graphic novels, TV Shows both live action and animated, plus Feature Films that have featured Batman.

False Face has not had a series in the DC Universe, such as The Joker has had, but you can see that there have been multiple series and one shots published on Batman, as seen in this link in the listings provided by the GCD a.k.a. Grand Comics Database!

Okay... enough about Malachi Throne as 'False Face' on the Batman TV show... What about the man himself?

Well...I had met Malachi briefly over at Richard (Captain Galaxy) Herd's booth when the con was just setting up on Friday.  (I'll post those new con photos in a future blog post.)

So when I walked by Malachi's own booth later, I re-introduced myself to him and met his wife Marjorie, who are both shown in the top left photo of this post.

Malachi was born December 1st of 1928. The earliest listing of acting credits for Malachi on the IMDB shows a 1959 date. Just like Yvonne Craig, (whom I blogged about yesterday here), Malachi acted on several western TV Shows that I watched during their first airings, including 'Death Valley Days', 'The Big Valley', 'Laredo', and the 'Wild Wild West', just to name a few here. 

Add to those, the other non-western TV Shows including 'Combat', 'The Outer Limits', 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.', 'Time Tunnel', 'Star Trek', and 'Lost In Space', I must have seen him many times on TV during his long career.  So it was very nice to meet him in person at last!

For a complete list of Malachi Throne's appearances both on TV and in Film, please see this IMDB page.  

For those of You that couldn't attend this convention, I'll be blogging about more media guests and comics creators in the days to come...

If You can't wait for my posts, you can check out more of who was there at Wizard World Anaheim by joining their Facebook Fan Page right here for one,  AND / OR You can go direct to their web site to see who else appeared there at: Wizard World Anaheim.

My special thanks to Malachi Throne for taking the time to pose for photos for this blog post and talking about his appearance on the 1966 Batman TV Series with me!  I would post a link to his web site or fan page, but I did not learn of any when meeting him...There is one that says it is the 'Official Malachi Throne Web Site', but I have not been able to verify that as of this posting.  That one centers on his Star Trek and Batman appearances.  

Which reminds me why I am posting another Batman related blog post today, after running one about Yvonne Craig yesterday...     

That's because yesterday I posted the BIG Announcement that I had made the night before at my Facebook member and Group Pages. I'm reposting it here today, as there are even more entries that have posted at the new Facebook Fan Page created by the Editor of the book shown to the left:

"Michael D Hamersky is happy to announce tonight, (after hinting for a while), that the book he has contributed to will be released in October of this year! “Gotham City 14 Miles” is an anthology of critical essays about the 1960s “Batman” TV show! The book is being published by Sequart and is edited by Jim Beard! I'll keep you posted ...as it gets closer to release! Here's a link to the New Fan Page: http://bit.ly/GOTHAMCity14Miles!"

So the above BIG Announcement was what I have been hinting at for several months now in this blog, and at my Facebook Group Page (a.k.a. http://www.Hamersky.com!  As you can tell... I'm pretty excited about seeing this book being scheduled for print.  My thanks to Jim Beard for asking me to be one of the essayists in his book!

~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com

Note: Our online comic book store was still 'open' for business during this past weekend, as this was only a three day con, and we caught up with shipping orders as of Tuesday the 20th. So if you purchased something and paid for it during that time...Your order is on its' way!  BTW, Batman Comics, Detective Comics and other DC Comics that have featured False Face and Batgirl who was blogged about yesterday, can be found in our online store at:

http://www.comicbookscircus.com/

 

---

 

"Hammering Out the Web For You Since May 12th, 1998!"       Note: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:     Make It So Marketing Inc. PO Box 130653 Carlsbad, CA 92013

Check Out More Of Our Own Endeavors:   Yeah, that's me in the photo shown to the left, taken at the 1973 San Diego Comic Con! I first set up as a 'dealer' at the 1972 SDCC at the El Cortez Hotel. So I've been around comic conventions for a little while, LOL! Tina and I now have an on-line exhibitor table at the first "virtual" comic con titled the "Facebook Comic Con" (FBCC)! You can view our table and interact with us there on Facebook by clicking this link.  So if YOU are a Facebook member, please 'join' our Facebook Comic Con - Make It So Marketing exhibitor table for updates, specials, links to this blog, and other wall comments that we post every day!    Also, if you are a Facebook member and would like to join my Facebook Network, feel free to send a 'friend request' to 'Michael D Hamersky'.         ------------------- Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review! I've made a special blog post about: "How To Best Submit YOUR Publication For Possible Review!" for those creators / publishers that would like to possibly have their publications mentioned or reviewed. Just click on the link provided in this paragraph! ~Michael @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com   WEB PAGE NOTE:  This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently. The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768. NOTE; All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

 

Well, as I mentioned on Monday's blog...we are back from that show, and the fourth blog in a series that I want to post here is pretty timely after last night's announcement on my Facebook member and Group Pages!

That's because Yvonne Craig, who is well known for her role in the 1960's Batman TV Show, is the Feature of today's blog!

The role that Yvonne played was actually a dual role, that of Barbara Gordon and her alter ego 'Batgirl', as seen to the left!

Batgirl was added in the third season of the TV Series. For more on the series itself, please see this Wikipedia entry by clicking this link.

The original series ran on the ABC Network from January 12, 1966 – March 14, 1968. There were 120 episodes aired during the three seasons that the show was broadcast.

Of course most 'mainstream' people are aware that there are comic books, graphic novels, TV Shows both live action and animated, plus Feature Films that have featured Batman.

Batgirl herself has had 27 different comic book titles, ranging from one-shots to one title that ran for 73 issues from April of 2000 to April of 2006, as seen in this link in the listings provided by the GCD a.k.a. Grand Comics Database!

But I wonder if they know that Yvonne Craig, (Batgirl herself), has a book that was printed a little while back that was titled 'From Ballet To The Batcave And Beyond'?!

I posted a photo of Yvonne holding the book at the top right of this blog post, but the photo to the left is a closer look at the front cover.

If YOU would like an autographed copy of this book, all YOU have to do is use this link to http://www.YvonneCraig.com to purchase a copy!

While you are there, check out the other links on the site. Great Fun for fans of Yvonne's other appearances as well!

Which BTW, reminds me that Yvonne is an accomplished actress in other roles besides Batgirl on the Batman TV Show.  Even though that is all I've blogged about so far, LOL!

I recall seeing Yvonne in earlier appearances in TV Westerns.  As long time blog readers know, I grew up during the period when TV Westerns ruled the airwaves as well as comic books!  I must have had most of those comic books based on TV Westerns during one point or the other during my lifetime! 

Yvonne was in 'Tales of Wells Fargo', 'Bronco', 'Laramie', 'Wagon Train', 'The Big Valley' and 'Death Valley Days' just to name a few!

Plus being a long time fan of Elvis Presley...I definitely remember her roles in 'Kissin' Cousins', and 'It Happened At the World's Fair'!

For a complete list of Yvonne's appearances both on TV and in Film, please see this IMDB page.  

For those of You that couldn't attend this convention, I'll be blogging about more media guests and comics creators in the days to come...

If You can't wait for my posts, you can check out more of who was there at Wizard World Anaheim by joining their Facebook Fan Page right here for one,  AND / OR You can go direct to their web site to see who else appeared there at: Wizard World Anaheim.

My special thanks to Yvonne Craig for taking the time to pose for photos for this blog post and another one that I'll be posting down the line on her films with Elvis.  Running out of room in this blog post, LOL! Besides, this post was more about her days on the Batman TV Show!  Which reminds me...     

AND Now to post in my Blog the BIG Announcement that I made last night at my Facebook member and Group Pages:

"Michael D Hamersky is happy to announce tonight, (after hinting for a while), that the book he has contributed to will be released in October of this year! “Gotham City 14 Miles” is an anthology of critical essays about the 1960s “Batman” TV show! The book is being published by Sequart and is edited by Jim Beard! I'll keep you posted ...as it gets closer to release! Here's a link to the New Fan Page: http://bit.ly/GOTHAMCity14Miles!"

So that's what I have been hinting at for several months now in this blog, and my Facebook Group Page (a.k.a. http://www.Hamersky.com!  As you can tell... I'm pretty excited about seeing this book being scheduled for print.  My thanks to Jim Beard for asking me to be one of the essayists in his book!

~ Michael D Hamersky @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com

Note: Our online comic book store was still 'open' for business during this past weekend, as this was only a three day con, and we have caught up with shipping orders as of Tuesday the 20th.  BTW, Batman Comics, Detective Comics and other DC Comics that have featured Batgirl, can be found in our online store at:

http://www.comicbookscircus.com/

 

---

 

"Hammering Out the Web For You Since May 12th, 1998!"       Note: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to our blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to us for possible review, send to:     Make It So Marketing Inc. PO Box 130653 Carlsbad, CA 92013

Check Out More Of Our Own Endeavors:   Yeah, that's me in the photo shown to the left, taken at the 1973 San Diego Comic Con! I first set up as a 'dealer' at the 1972 SDCC at the El Cortez Hotel. So I've been around comic conventions for a little while, LOL! Tina and I now have an on-line exhibitor table at the first "virtual" comic con titled the "Facebook Comic Con" (FBCC)! You can view our table and interact with us there on Facebook by clicking this link.  So if YOU are a Facebook member, please 'join' our Facebook Comic Con - Make It So Marketing exhibitor table for updates, specials, links to this blog, and other wall comments that we post every day!    Also, if you are a Facebook member and would like to join my Facebook Network, feel free to send a 'friend request' to 'Michael D Hamersky'.         ------------------- Talking about comics: if YOU are a comics creator, (writer, penciler, inker, colorist, letterer, etc.), OR even a Comics / Magazine Publisher, feel free to contact me regarding YOUR works for a possible mention / review! I've made a special blog post about: "How To Best Submit YOUR Publication For Possible Review!" for those creators / publishers that would like to possibly have their publications mentioned or reviewed. Just click on the link provided in this paragraph! ~Michael @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com   WEB PAGE NOTE:  This blog post is written for the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safarai, Netscape, Firefox and the others serve the page up differently. The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768. NOTE; All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners.

 

Well, we are back from that show, and the third blog that I want to post is about seeing one of the actors that I really enjoyed watching on another one of Irwin Allen's TV Shows... David (Al) Hedison of 'Voyage to The Bottom of the Sea' fame!

I was up in Kodiak, Alaska when this show first aired.  Trust me, it was a BIG HIT among those of us that enjoyed 'sci-fi' type of TV Shows!

The original series ran from September 14, 1964 – March 31, 1968 on the ABC Network.  We still had a black and white TV set in Alaska, but that was OK because the premiere episode was shown in black & white, (even though it was filmed in color)!

I soon picked up the Gold Key Comics that featured this TV Show... they were favorites of mine for years!  Here's the link to the GCD where you too can see the front covers of the 16 issue run.  The comics were published from December of 1964 until April of 1970, just before I graduated High School.  That was a long time period of time for the comics being printed, although there aren't that many issues in the run as they were published almost on a quarterly basis!

David of course is known for much more than just 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea', but hey, this is a comic book oriented blog, LOL!

David, shown to the left during his 'Voyage' days, was also in a great Sci-Fi film, 'The Fly', back in 1958 when he was known as 'Al Hedison'!

For a complete list of David's appearances both on TV and in Film, please see this IMDB page.

BTW, to show you how popular Irwin Allen's TV Shows were... The third season of 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea' ran simultaneously with two more Irwin Allen-produced TV series: the second season of Lost in Space and the premiere, (and only) season of The Time Tunnel. 

(Not too subtle hint about a future blog post... I also have photos from this same convention of a certain actress who starred in Time Tunnel to post here!)

My thanks go out to Diane Kachmar, who is pictured at the top left of this blog post.  Diane is the co-author of a book with David Goudsward titled 'The Fly At Fifty', which has a foreword by David Hedison.

Diane C. Kachmar is also a University Librarian at Florida Atlantic University. She maintains www.DavidHedison.com where YOU can purchase David Hedison signed photos, etc. 

BTW, Diane is the author of Roy Scheider: A Film Biography (2002). You can also visit her on the web at Author's Den. She is one busy gal as you tell!   

For those of You that couldn't attend this convention, I'll be blogging about more media guests and comics creators in the days to come...

If You can't wait for my posts, you can check out more of who was there at Wizard World Anaheim by joining their Facebook Fan Page right here for one,  AND / OR You can go direct to their web site to see who else appeared there at: Wizard World Anaheim.

Again, my thanks to Diane and her husband, John Kachmar, for being so nice to me during my time at their booth with David Hedison!     

AND my thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over the 3,100 total posts in number!