Episode 126 - Tokyo Giant

Godzilla vs The Marvel Universe. From Godzilla 24 by Doug Moench, Herb Trimpe, et al. (c) 2023 Marvel Comics.

After seven long years, we’re happy to welcome Zander Cannon (@zandercannon) to the pod to discuss the mad monster party, officially known as Godzilla Minus One. We basically go through the entire film plot point by plot point, so if you haven’t seen it yet, save the pod for after you’ve watched it. Short version: it’s as good or better than all the buzz you’ve heard about it. We talk about the main characters, both the humans and Big G himself, compare it to the original 1954 film (with and without Raymond Burr in the American version), the call-backs to previous movies, the drama at the heart of the movie and what very nerdy fan service thing I would have loved to see in the movie, even if most viewers may not have gotten the reference.

From there, we discuss the 1979 Godzilla comic from Marvel. Zander only read a couple issues as a kid, but I reread all 24 issues for the show. So, we discuss the creators and art style, which Marvel super heroes appear in the book and, of course, the giant Mattel Godzilla toy from that era (you know, the one with the spring-loaded fist you could shoot).

That’s a natural segue into Zander’s comic Kaijumax, which finished up last year and the third of three hardcover collections is coming out soon (it may be out when you hear this) from Oni Press. We talk about the evolution of the series over its 30 issues, the lack of monster vs monster splash pages in the series, all the tropes that got turned on their heads in the series and more.

We end with what could a general talk abou the comics industry, largely about original art, prices these days for older pages, creating comics digitally vs the old pen and ink days, color guides and how cool they are to see, retro technology and a bunch of other topics.

It was great to talk to Zander again on the show and hopefully it won’t take seven years to invite him back.

Episode 124 - Just Gone Noon, Half Past Monsoon

The Sheik and Princess Salima, also known as Edward and Joyce Farhat.

Who better to have on the show to discuss scary wrestlers for Halloween than the man who wrote a book about maybe the scariest of them all, The Sheik (Edward Farhat)?

I’m happy to welcome for the first time on the show, author, historian and podcaster Brian R Solomon (@BrianRSolomon). Brian’s biography of the Sheik, Blood and Fire, tells the story of how the boy fascinated by Middle Eastern culture in things like Rudolph Valentino’s The Sheik and Michael Powell’s The Thief of Bagdad, would provide the basis for his wrestling persona. We talk about his amateur wrestlingcredentials garnered during World War II and how they were part of his initial pro wrestling career, before he eventually became the Madman from the Middle East. We go over most of his career, both in the US, including his promotion Big Time Wrestling in Detroit and his phenomenal success in Japan, first with All Japan and then a decade later in FMW.

Since Brian is currently working on a book about Gorilla Monsoon, we talk about the similarities, at least being amateur wrestlers who ended up with “foreign heel” gimmicks. We also have a fascinating conversation about early 20th American attitudes toward “exotic” cultures, like the Middle East and the Far East and how that shaped their gimmicks. We also look at how The Sheik, one of the biggest heels in the 1970s, never portayed the kind of anti-American character we associated with people like the Iron Sheik, Adnan Al-Kaissie or Scandar Akbar.

From there, we have a long chat about the candidates for this year’s Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. Since we both have votes, we go over who we think the strongest candidates should be, even if there’s no guarantee they’ll be elected. We also discuss of the flaws in the system and ways it could be improved.

We also have some chat about wrestling’s place in popular culture in the 1970s and how the bloody wrestling magazine covers played into the seediness of the sport, before it became more sanitized in the 1980s.

Finally, there’s some comics chat, where I recommend some current books Brian might enjoy as a lapsed comics reader.

This was a great show and I hope to have Brian back on the future to discuss some of the things we only briefly mention. Make sure to check out Brian’s books and his podcast, Shut Up and Wrestle, part of the Arcadian-Vanguard network.

The Plot Podcast - Episode 17 - Enola Gay

On the 78th anniversary of the Atomic Bomb being dropped on Hiroshima, we look at some of the popular culture around that event.

We start by discussing the 1980 song “Enola Gay,” by the 1980s British band Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark (OMD). We look at a brief history of the band, the success of the song both at the time and its historical legacy and a not-necessarily-obvious resonance it had in popular culture.

After that, given the box office success of Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” we look some other films that take on the creation of the bomb in 1945. That includes the 1989 films “Day One” starring David Strathairn as Oppenheimer and “Fat Man and Little Boy,” starring Paul Newman and Dwight Schultz (who you may remember from “The A-Team” or “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) as Oppenheimer. We also briefly discuss the 1980 BBC mini-series “Oppenheimer” with Sam Waterston in the title role.

We end with a brief mention of two other foreign language films related to the events: Alain Resnais’ “Hiroshima Mon Amour” from 1959 and Akira Kurosawa’s “Rhapsody in August” from 1991.