By the Light of the Silvery Tube

Hey Actioneer(s)!

Well it looks like my brain is starting to function again after a month of eating tramadol and cyclobenzaprine by the handfuls. If you're here already you've probably seen that a new post about Madonna, Captain Planet and the Crypt Keeper went up yesterday, but did you know I put a new SAC post up today? No? Well you better get over there and check it out...

CLICK HERE to read up on my thoughts about the current state of Adult Swim.

-Action Matt!

If You Call Yourself Madonna...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

BEST. COSTUME. EVER.

Watch Transforming Transformer Costume and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

Thanks to Kev @ rhcomics.com for shedding some light my way.

Well, It Wasn't Animation... So What Else Can You Call It?

This week's Media Madness is mostly about Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic. No witticisms or comments before sending you over the the ol' SAC Blog this week. I spent all of my brain cells writing the post.


Click HERE to see what I'm talking about.

Image from joblo.com

All the World is Waitng for You...

What a truly horrible theme song that was, eh? Horribly Awesome!

Any hoo, I found myself pinch-writing for a friend at the Sequential Art Collective blog today, literally at the last minute. Or actually, the first, as the news hit me at about midnight. Stayed up all last night watching the newly released animated Wonder Woman DVD from Warner Premiere's DC Universe line and scribbling my thoughts about it HERE. Check it all out... both the post and the movie, because IMHO both are completely worth your while.

Original artwork from Challenge Super Friends, 1978.

Like Seussical, but with Less Rosie O'Donnell

Please check out the new MMM post.
Of all of my favorites, it is the most.

It celebrates a man who was most influential,
on the media I love, the Arts Sequential...

The rest of the rhyme time's writ over HERE
Click on the link for Seuss birthday cheer!

Original art by me, from back when I made envelopes for stamp collectors.

Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na...

Not even Batman could have stopped a certain joker from stealing an Oscar last night. Check out this week's Monday Media Madness post I wrote for the Sequential Art Collective and read all about it.

Click HERE to flip the Shakespeare head and slide down the proverbial Batpole.

"I had a dream I was a vigilante's sidekick..."

Looks Like My Office

Art by Jonathan Godoy. You can buy a print of it HERE

I'm not kidding. All it's missing is the Sword of Omens...

What's My Next Tattoo - You Decide!

At the end of this year I'll be getting another nerd tattoo. Because I'm up in the air on what aspect of my misspent youth I want to celebrate next, I'm leaving it up to you, my faithful reader(s), to decide. Here are raw images of the choices -- which are approximations of what I'm thinking of, but in no way represent the final art:

The Shield of He-Man

or

Comics Code Authority Seal

You can vote via the poll below my bio, on the right hand side of this page. Polling will close on November 30th, 2009 at 9:00AM. (My 33rd Birthday.) I'll get the ink sometime in mid-December. I'll post updates on the art as they're available -- or, if you're an artist, and you want to take a stab at interpreting either of these iconic emblems e-mail your designs to matt@sacart.org

Happy Friday the 13th

An Open Letter to (Louise) Robey

Oh Robey,

Star of the bafflingly titled Friday the 13th: The Series...

...Only Wilma Flintstone pre-dates you in my love of shapely red heads with strange and annoying voices.

Sure, you can blame your accent on being Canadian, but can you broil an entire rack of Brontosaurus ribs? Or at least satisfactorily explain how a string of movies about a slasher in a hockey mask was turned into a TV show aboot two "cousins" tracking down cursed antiques?

The 13th falls on a Friday again in March. So, you have a month to come up with something.

- Love,
Action Matt!

I've Still Got It (The Power, That Is)

There's a new Monday Media Madness about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe up at the Sequential Art Collective blog.

Hold aloft your magic sword and click HERE to check it out.

Smurf Life, Part 1: Fan/Boy

I was in the hospital last week visiting my newborn nephew, when I met a little kid proudly displaying his freshly pressed Thomas the Tank Engine water-activated tattoo. It was on the backside of his hand, which not-so-coincidently held some plastic replica of one of Thomas's buddies.

As I sat in the hospital room, cradling a stuffed Smurf in my left arm, I smiled when the kid ran up to me and proudly proclaimed: “I have a tattoo! And I have the toy! Look!”

“That’s awesome, homes” I replied. “Me too.”

(I should say here that the stuffed Smurf I was carrying was for my nephew. My own was at home on one of my shelves. I don’t take the Smurf out and carry him around. I mean, I would, but that would just get him all dirty.)

“Can I see?” he asked, as he pulled his hand out my face.

I put the Smurf in my nephew's crib, obligingly unbuttoned my over-shirt and started pulling up the sleeve of my tee, when I stopped and asked:

“Do you like spooky things?”

“No, I like baseball.”

“Well, if and when you do, ask me again.” I put my button down back on.

How the hell do you explain a smurf skull to a four year-old? The Smurf I was holding was probably the first one he’d ever seen, and there I was about to give him a glimpse of the end of their multi-century life cycle. I mean, he probably has never even heard of Tupac (although I have to admit, I have no idea what kids are listening to nowadays), so would he even get the “Thug Life” reference that crowns the art?

His father, one of my brother's friends, did get the reference and appreciated Death’s Head Smurf - as he’s been named - after I showed him and his curious girlfriend later on (and out of the kid’s sight.) They got a bigger kick out of it after I explained that I was probably the country’s leading, if not only, self-proclaimed Smurfologist.

Then the usual string of questions came…

What’s with Smurfette? Why is she the only female smurf? How do they reproduce? How did you get to be a Smurfologist?

The answers:

How do you mean? She’s not. They don’t, the stork brings the new babies. And well, that’s a long one…

Got a minute? Because maybe it’s time we put this one on the record. Might take a bit.

The Smurfs animated series debuted on September 12^th, 1981 at 8:30AM. I was four. At the time, I believed it was perhaps the most amazing hour of television that I had ever sat through in my life. Then on the following Friday, I saw the newest episode of The Incredible Hulk and exactly the same thing. But, on Saturday the 19^th The Smurfs was on again, and that reclaimed the prize. This cycle continued until the Hulk was canceled at the end of that season. Then, I’m sure another show took over for it almost instantaneously. Remember, I was four. That’s how things like that go when you’re four.

I honestly don’t remember too much from that time, but I do remember that I became absolutely obsessed with The Smurfs. How could I not? They spoke in their own uber-cool language, they were adorable as all get out and because the Wallace Berrie company had started to import European Smurf toys as early as 1978, they already had toys on the market that I could annoy my parents for.

It was a huge phenomenon. Everyone watched The Smurfs, from my older brother who claimed it was “dumb” - although he sat with me for hours crafting little replicas with our Paas Make Your Own Smurf Kit – straight through to my grandmother, who at 60 years old tuned in so she could have something to talk about with me during our weekly phone calls.

Below is a composite reconstruction of conversations that occurred between young Matthew C. Murray and Anna T. Cole, from 1981 to 1983, based on various family recollections:

Grandma: Did you watch The Mertz today, Matthew?

Matthew: They’re smurfed Smurfs, Me-Ma.

Grandma: Don’t be a whiner, Matthew.

Matthew: I’m not whining.

Grandma: Then, what... are you crying?

Matthew: I’m not crying, Me-Ma.

Grandma: Of course you are, I can hear it in your voice.

Matthew: I’M NOT CRYING! Jeez, what is your smurf broken?

Grandma: It’s going to be okay, Matthew. Stop crying.

Matthew (actually starting to cry, angrily): I…I…I’m not cr-cr-crying!!!

Grandma (laughing): Well, I watched The Mertz today and that Gargamel sure is funny, huh?

Matthew: (uncontrollable sobbing)

Grandma (mock condolence): Aw... Why don't you sing a song for me, Matthew?

Matthew: (to the tune of the early 80s Noodle Roni Parmesano jingle) Noodle Roni Parmagiana, a bit-doe-wo-wit-doe-wee*!

Matthew slams the phone down in utter disgust. Grandma calls back laughing hysterically.

* Translated: "...a bit of Old Italy"

Years went by. The Smurfs expanded to a 90 minute show, then went back to an hour show, then back to 90 minutes based on the failings of other Saturday morning offerings. It moved to 9:00. Then the Smuflings came on the scene. Then Puppy. Then Grandpa. All the while, other shows had slowly been eroding my viewership. Other more exciting shows, with a more “sophisticated” sense of humor and better tie-ins like the Muppet Babies and Lazer Tag.

And let’s face it, The Smurfs had become “kids stuff.” All-in-all, I collected the odd Smurf and occasionally watched the cartoon until I reached the age that I could no longer hide it from my friends that I did so. Oh, that and the Superfriends: Super Power Team: Galactic Guardians Show was so much cooler anyway.

It was time to put childish things away, and embrace Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling. I was nine. That’s how things like that go when you’re nine.

Stay 'Tooned for Part 2…

The Hulk of 123rd Street

Hey Actioneers!

A new post about my 30 year history with the Hulk and my thoughts on his recent DVD is up at the Sequential Art Collective blog.

Click HERE to learn more about this elusive beast:

The creature in his natural habitat, c. 1980

Matt. Murray's Monday Media Madness

In addition to my random ramblings over here, I'm also blogging weekly for the Sequential Art Collective.

Besides my fanboy mess, you can get a regular look into the brains of some of my favorite people on the planet including: Jennifer Babcock, Jared Gniewek, Justin Maudslien, Michael Carlisle, Leah Schnelbach, Lee French, Allan Dorison and Kevin Gillespie. It updates with different and diverse dubiousness daily. So make sure to bookmark it and incorporate it into your web browsing routine.

Click on the logo below to check it out: