The Silver State Chronicles

The Sky Rider of the Spaceways!

The original run of the Silver Surfer comic book (1968-1970) is a true classic. The first spin-off of The Fantastic Four comic, it featured one of the most original characters in the Marvel Universe.

The run boasted several great covers, but my personal favorite is the cover to Silver Surfer #4. It features SS and The Mighty Thor about to clash in battle. Indeed, this is one of my alltime favorite comic covers! They just don’t make them like this anymore!

Kudos to the giants of the Marvel Age of Comics to give us great stories like this one, as well as one of the greatest covers of all time! Special thanks to the talented John Buscema for drawing this memorable, fantastic cover!

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Sentinel of the Spaceways!

The LA Times reports that SF fan-favorite J. Michael Straczynski, the creative force behind Babylon 5, will be writing the Silver Surfer spinoff film.

Sad to report that the creative types have turned their brains off at the door and suggest that a Silver Surfer film take a ‘darker route.’

That’s not to say a SS film can’t be ‘mature.’ I just get the sense that the film industry (and the comic industry) instinctively believes that ‘mature’ means ‘darker,’ and ‘darker’ means ‘mature.’ Neither is the case, of course. But given the junk both industries crank out, I expect no more from them.

Wait and see.

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The Power Cosmic – All In Color For A Quarter

I’ve been following the story of 20th Century Fox’s publicity stunt, in cahoots with The Franklin Mint, to put 40,000 altered quarters into the stream of commerce to promote the upcoming film “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.’

When I first read about this a few days ago, it struck me as strange since defacing US currency for such a stunt is a crime. I figured they weren’t real quarters but rather commemorative coins or something like that.

Turns out that they are real quarters that the grapchics wizards at The Franklin Mint doctored up. MSNBC reports…

The U.S. Mint said
in a news release Friday …

“The promotion is in no way approved, authorized, endorsed, or sponsored by
the United States Mint, nor is it in any way associated or affiliated with the United States Mint,” according to the release. The federal mint did not say whether the studio or the private Franklin Mint would face a penalty.

The altered coins are quarters honoring the state of California that entered circulation in 2005. They feature George Washington on the front, as usual, but a colorized version of the character on the back. All 40,000 are slated to be in circulation throughout the country by the end of Memorial Day weekend, and about 800 were released in each state.

The coins appear to be fetching a high price on ebay, with winning bids over $100 common. I’ll just be happy if the movie is good! :-)

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Herald of The Destroyer of Worlds

USA Today continues its tradition of moving away from reporting the news and instead running press releases and helping with the publicity of the next flavor of the month. Today, they ran a brief article and photo of one of the featured characters of the next Fantastic Four film, The Silver Surfer.

Fans of the comic know that The Silver Surfer first appeared in comic books way back in FF # 48, at the beginning of the fabled Lee-Kirby classic, “The Galactus Trilogy.” I gotta say, though this pic is clearly intended to give oldschool comic book fans goosebumps, it leaves me a bit cold. I always figured the Surfer to be devoid of facial detail and this made his character (with all the requisite angst and shameless introspection) more poignant.

Wait and see!

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Dr. Reed Richards Builds A Mechanical Marvel!

One of the films I am looking forward to this coming summer is the sequel to the fun & funny ‘Fantastic Four’ film, ‘FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer.’ It promises to bring to life the legendary Lee-Kirby ‘Galactus Trilogy’ from FF # 48-50! Debuting in this film will be the FF’s versatile ‘Fantasticar.’

Works for me! The FF I always loved was about exciting, escapist fun, and The Fantasticar sure looks like exciting, escapist fun! You can read more about it in today’s USA Today – just click on this link!

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