Image du Jour

Vintage poster for Jean Cocteau's classic Orpheus (aka Orphee; 1950).

Image du Jour

A pretty cool Japanese poster for The Omega Man.

Image du Jour

A vary rare variant poster for Lucio Fulci's 1966 spaghetti western Massacre Time (Tempo di Massacro aka The Brute and the Beast), starring the great Franco Nero (Django, Keoma, Companeros, many more).

This title and image pretty much have nothing to do with Fulci's film, just in case you go into the film expecting a town without a sheriff.

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Image du Jour

Sarah and I were discussing reincarnation and her favourite DC heroines this evening, so I thought this image of Hawkgirl that evoked one of her past lives might be appropos. For you, Sarah (as Carter Hall said to Kendra), My Once and Future Love...

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Image du Jour

Image du Jour

Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Chessmen of Mars is the fifth of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars novels, and one of my favourites. I own the edition with this phantasmagoric cover by Gino D'Achille. John Carter is not center stage in this book, which has to be the weirdest entry in the series; certainly ERB outdid himself with his descriptions of the titular "Chessmen" creatures. D'Achille's cover certainly made me shudder when my uncle gave me a copy for my 12th birthday. But I loved it just as the other ERB Mars novels, and it's still a fantastic read.

Image du Jour

Image du Jour

My mother bought this comic for me when I was a wee tot. I liked H.G. Wells, and I thought the hero, Killraven, looked cool, but the lampreys were scary. I didn't understand the story. I could make no sense of it. I decided to give it another try another time. By the time I did, Amazing Adventures was defunct.

In the 1980s I rather cheaply amassed a complete run of the Amazing Adventures issues featuring the War of the Worlds strip. It's now one of my favourite Marvel series ever. And this Jim Starlin cover image (aided by the H.G. Wells imprimatur) is what first roused my curiosity. What a classic 70s Marvel cover!

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Image du Jour

Image du Jour

Image du Jour

Frigga in a contemplative moment before slaughtering a few dozen more pimps, thugs, and anyone else in her way.

Image du Jour

Swamp Thing and Abby by John Totleben, one of the most underrated artists in the history of comics. This is for Sarah.

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Image du Jour

Stunning original Japanese poster art for Female Prisoner Scorpion # 701: Grudge Song (1973), directed by Yasuharu Hasebe (Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter) and starring the amazing Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood).

Image du Jour

A rare Czech poster for the original Planet of the Apes (1968).

Image du Jour

A 1968 Japanese one-sheet poster for Jean-Luc Godard's brilliant Alphaville (1965).

Image du Jour

Morded by John Eric Holmes is the 1980 sequel to the 1928 novel Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan, which was the basis for the Buck Rogers comic strip (also created and originally written by Nowlan), which of course spawned movies, comix, toys, a television series, etc. Mordred is a fantastic book that answers many questions about the future world postulated by Nowlan, and about Rogers himself. This book has been out of print for years. Thankfully I still have my first edition mass market. Mordred's gorgeous cover is my Image du Jour for today.

Image du Jour

If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, my good friend Win Scott Eckert should begin feeling very flattered, starting today. He posts a Pic o' the Day on his site, and you never know what to expect except that they're always searingly eye-catching. Much of the time he posts covers of obscure (and not-so-obscure) pulp novels (of all genres), but he also tosses in plenty of recent fare as well.

Well, now that I've pretty much endorsed Win's cool site, which everyone should check out (http://woldnewton.blogspot.com), I'm copping to ripping off his idea, and my 'Images du Jour' will be from any media - comics, books, films, and so on - covers, posters, and any other groovy image that I come upon and want to share. I've learned from Win that it's good to keep a steady feed going with one's blog, and have at least something up every day. I am still woefully behind on promoting Dark Discoveries, Slam-Bang Comics, and With Honor. But I'll also be posting some older film reviews (revised and updated) from my days in the late 90s as a columnist, reviewer, and feature writer for magazines and newspapers that are sadly defunct (and with no web presence anymore either). I want to preserve and share my work from that period since copies of those publications are now so scarce.

Enjoy my first Image du Jour, perched atop this screed. Personally I find it breathtaking...

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