Blog Archives
Fisher, Mike – 3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasions Comics #4
3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Comics #4
Oh Star Babe Invasion comics, never change. It’s always refreshing to see these retro ladies and read about some of these classic science fiction movies from back in the times when special effects took serious effort to complete (not that the computer stuff is easy on the programmers, but it’s different than the insane amount of time that went into producing stop-motion animation). And for a comic that could easily take one short turn into lewd and creepy, Mike always manages to keep things tasteful and seems to genuinely appreciate the work that these women put into their roles. This one is mostly about Carolyn Munro, who starred in an Italian ripoff of Star Wars called Starcrash (that sounds fantastically cheesy and includes a young David Hasselhoff of all actors), a Sinbad movie and a James Bond movie, among other things. This gives Mike a solid chance to dig into Starcrash, and he joyfully picks apart some of the production problems and ways in which it was obviously lacking in comparison to Star Wars. Hardcore nerds can try and name the characters depicted in the next section to the villains that she played against, but all I could manage was “Jaws” from the James Bond movie, so good luck with that one. Other stories include how quickly computers are going to surpass humans in terms of independent thought, the painstaking process of the special effects of that previously mentioned Sinbad movie, a brief history of Sarah Douglass (the female villain Kryptonian from Superman II) and several full page spreads of either regular pin-ups or what actresses might have looked like in different roles. These comics are always so good-natured that they’re impossible not to like, and this one is no exception. Old and medium-timers, this will give you some serious nostalgia for the good old days (whichever time period applies to you, as we all know that our own preferred period is the best). Young-timers, back in the day they made special effects using actual objects painstakingly placed into position over a period of months or even years just for the sake of one movie. You should look into it! $5
Fisher, Mike – 3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Comics #3
3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Comics #3
It’s time for another issue of this series, as there are still retro science fiction ladies that are begging to be covered! Well, maybe not begging, and this issue does reveal that at least of few of them have met with tragic ends since running around in a fur bikini, but I’m veering into dark territory for a book that’s this lighthearted. This time around we get a detailed description of the 1958 movie “Queen of Outer Space” (I do love the extra bits of research that Mike puts into these stories, like how one of the rebels in the movie later married her love interest from the film), a more detailed bio of Joi Lansing (from the same movie), a detailed look at another old campy classic (“When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth!,” and Mike details the differences between available versions of the film), a couple of pages of random ladies (where you can guess their identity and then confirm it when Mike gives the answers; if you get more than 1/2 of these right without cheating you might want to email Mike and see if he needs an assistant), and an interview with Victoria Vetri. From prison, where she’s currently staying after shooting her husband, so you can see what I mean about it getting a little dark. There are also several one page spreads of various ladies in various states of undress/terror/adventure, and another full page color centerfold that is not naked, so shame on you for thinking that. Once again it’s a fun book for fans of the genre, as even the dorkiest of dorks is bound to learn something new here. The price is a mystery once again, so once again I’m going with the random guess of $5, which is probably too cheap for all the full color shenanigans going on here.
Fisher, Mike – 3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Comics Summer 2011
3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Comics Summer 2011
Maybe it’s all the review copies of adult comics I’ve been getting lately, or maybe it’s just the utter ease with which you can find a naked picture of any starlet who has ever taken off their clothes for even a split second, but I found this comic downright quaint. Sure, it’s meant to be at least mildly salacious, and shame on you if you couldn’t figure that out from the title/cover. Still, outside of some (mostly drawn) cleavage here and there, there’s just not a lot here to threaten the delicate sensibilities of those types who try to censor everything. It’s not like Mike was trying to go that way and failed; he comes across as a light-hearted guy who is just having fun with the idea and using it to get an interview with one of the ladies from a space-themed beer commercial. Sorry, the “back in my day” rant will now end. So how about the comic? There are several full page spreads of various actresses in real or imagined movies and even a full color centerfold. The comic stories include a critical but fair look back at Barbarella (including the tidbit that Raquel Welch turned down the role), determining the “Trek Babe Supreme,” figuring out who gets the last ticket to the “Space Ark,” dealing with stupid aliens, and a theory of how the next mission would go in the new “Star Trek” movie after they put Kirk in charge (just after graduating) of the most powerful ship in the fleet. Yes, that was a remarkably stupid part of the movie, but the “stupid” quotient in movies seems to be going up all the time. There’s also that interview with Rachelle Wood from the beer commercial, which ended up being more interesting than I would have guessed going in. If you’re a fan of the ladies in science fiction you have an excellent chance of liking this book a whole lot. If not there’s significantly less in here to like, but the stories are still fun and hey, maybe if you give it a try you’ll end up liking ladies of science fiction more than you do now. No price for some baffling reason, but due to all that full color stuff I’m going with $5.
Fisher, Mike – 3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Special
Star Babe, 510 Enchanted Way, San Antonio, TX, 78260
3-D Pete’s Star Babe Invasion Special
That’s a bit of an awkward title, but you probably get the idea: this is a comic (mostly) about various attractive women in older science fiction movies and tv shows (mostly). Ladies, if you’re instantly offended, all I can say is that Mike mostly used images of faces, so it’s not like he was a total perv about all this or anything. Bookending this comic are two examples of Raquel Welch in science fiction stories, and they’re not the ones that you’re thinking of. Assuming that you were thinking of Fantastic Voyage and One Million Years B.C., that is, as the examples Mike picked were from her 1970 TV special (that you can find at You Tube) and her guest appearance on an episode of Mork & Mindy. Next he talks about the 1954 movie Devil Girl, its strengths and weaknesses, and goes on to draw how it would look today with an actual budget. He follows this with a dozen babes (hey, I’m just going to use his language for the purpose of this review) from Lost in Space and the original Star Trek, and wow did those pictures kick in the nostalgia part of my brain. The sampled page is next, a brilliant retelling of his watching the show with his family and how it challenged him to think. Now we get to what had to be included in this issue: full color centerfold! Not as salacious as you might think. There’s a bit of quiz next, as you have to match the pictures to the actual actress. Sadly, my dork cred isn’t nearly what I thought it was, as I only got the two obvious ones (Princess Leia and Barbarella).  I almost sampled the next page instead of the Star Trek story, as it’s an image of a scientifically accurate space babe, and she’s just about as horrific as you might imagine. Finally there’s an excellent two page story about Gort (from The Day The Earth Stood Still), with some fun facts about the movie and the various actors involved. Finally there’s an “interview” with Gort which was one of the few things in the book that I didn’t like, but by that point the comic had already won me over. This is for anybody who grew up on science fiction movies and shows from about 1950-1980. Ok, more specifically men, but there’s enough stuff here for geeks of both genders. $5
