"Breeze Through" Any Auto Repair Job

     With this book, you can repair any part from any car, quickly and easily.  Were cars really that simple, that it could all be covered in one book, even a very large book?  I wonder if anybody bought this book and opened a mechanic shop, based solely on what they could learn from its pages?  Before imported cars became more prominent, I suppose one engine was the same as another, regardless of its manufacturer.
     I noticed it didn't list the Tucker as a car covered by the book  If you came across one of those, you'd just be out of luck.      

You Are Under The Spell of Ka-Bala, The Mystic One

 

 

     The moment is tense as you place your hands on the mysterious board.  Yes, Ka-Bala sees all and tells all.  Armed with the secrets of your future, the ever searching eye of Zohar watches your every move as you take a deep breath and ask your question.  With the all-seeing knowledge of Ka-Bala you are mere seconds away from learning your destiny.  And you want to know....if you'll ever pitch a winning game? Even though Ka-Bala considers that a bullshit question, he answers you anyway.   
     Your partner, however, decides to ask a better (if not hopelessly vague) question: "What will my future be?"  The 'taro' card spells it out plain as day: "A happy marriage with children--material wealth!"  Your partner lets out an uncontrollable  "Whee!"
     Isn't messing with unknown mystical forces fun?

     If Ka-Bala is truly as all-seeing and all-knowing as advertised, why didn't he tell Madonna to stay away from Shanghai Surprise?

STAR TREK WEEK: The Final Post

    Well, this is the last day of STAR TREK WEEK.  Since STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS opens today, I thought I'd end the week on a quiet note and show an ad for the very first Star Trek movie.  This ad may be more exciting than the movie itself.
     I know I trash The Motion Picture a lot, but I really do like the film.  I just thought it took itself a bit too seriously.

     Anyway, thanks for hanging with the Cult all week and go see STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS!

Join us again next week as we go back to talking about non Star Trek comics.

STAR TREK WEEK: DC Adventures

     DC Comics published the adventures of the Enterprise crew from 1984 to 1996 in two different series.  The first series began right after the events of  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, continuing until after Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  Contract negotiations with Paramount put the book on hiatus for a year in 1988.  When the series returned in 1989, all stories took place after the events in the recently released Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, eventually working in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
     DC continued to publish Star Trek comics--including an 80 issue series based on The Next Generation--until 1996, when the license went back to Marvel Comics.  

STAR TREK WEEK: Starfleet Fashion Show

     Apart from being a legendary comic book artist, Dave Cockrum was well known for his inventive costume designs in the 70s and the 80s.  Updating the looks of the Legion of Super-Heroes and the 'All New All Different' X-Men are probably his most famous designs, but I would have loved it if he had been in control of the new Starfleet uniforms in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.   Anything would have been an improvement to the dull, drab uniforms we actually got.  Still, even though Dave Cockrum didn't design these uniforms, at least we got to see him draw them.  So that's something, I suppose...

     From Marvel's Star Trek #10:

     What immediately strikes me is the pant-boot combo.  There's not a single iota of my being that believes for the merest of seconds that anybody in the 23rd century would have thought that a good idea.  Hell, look at Kirk up there.  Even he look pissed.

     Uhura fares a little better in a Class B uniform, but the pant-boot still persists, and...sweet god, is she wearing platforms?

     It's somehow fitting that the medical uniforms are the most swinging, so "Bones" can show off a little chest hair to the ladies.  But there isn't a bigger cock-block in the entire galaxy worse than those damn pant-boots.

     Spock looks positively radiant in his leisure uniform, though I think it odd that he was the one chosen to model it.  Sulu looks more like the leisure suit kinda guy, anyway.

     Scotty's work uniform isn't that far removed from the command level Class A uniform, except it has the misfortune to be a one piece, and it has unsightly cargo pockets.  Still, he looks rather chuffed not to be wearing the anti-radiation suit. 

STAR TREK WEEK: The (Not Quite) Final Frontier

     These 'weighted' figures from the San Francisco Mint claim to be in an 'action pose.'  For Kirk and Klaa, the Klingon, this seems an accurate statement.  The rest of the collection seems lacking in any sort of action pose at all.  Spock and McCoy actually seem concerned as to why Kirk apparently started doing the Macarena.  Sybok just stands there, I dunno...being all touchy-feely and stuff.

STAR TREK WEEK: Marvel Adventures

     Marvel's association with the crew of the Enterprise began with a three issue adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  Despite the best efforts of writer Marv Wolfman and the art team of Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson, the comic ended up just like the movie: visually appealing, but otherwise, dull.
     Perhaps unsure how to handle the franchise, Marvel published 18 issues of the title, putting Kirk and company in rather odd situations, like the time they beamed down into a haunted house...

     ...and even though it ended up being a rather complex scheme involving the Klingons, it wasn't figured out before ghosts, monsters and even Dracula himself invaded the Enterprise.

     In another issue, a mysterious force invades the Enterprise, 'possessing' crew members to attack one another.  While Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet to find a solution, Bones works diligently in sick bay, tending to the victims of the attacks, when...

     A visitor from Scotty's past seemed to be able to dredge up more than old feelings.  Able to bring physical form to Scotty's subconscious memories of his ancestral folklore, it's not long before the Enterprise has to deal with a witch...

     ....and the Loch Ness Monster!

     Kirk's feelings weren't spared either.  When an old flame and her new husband beam aboard the Enterprise, Kirk is astonished to find out that her new husband is a highly evolved being of pure thought energy...

    

     All in all, Marvel's 18 issues of Star Trek were largely forgettable, and when they lost the license in 1981, no one else picked it up until 1984, when DC Comics launched a Star Trek series that would last for the next 12 years.   


     Still, how bad could the series be if it introduced the world to the Travelocity Gnome?