With the ability to phase through solid objects, Tinya was inducted into the Legion’s fold early on, but it wasn’t until years later when Dave Cockrum updated her character with that swinging’ futuristic bell-bottom jumpsuit that she became the spunky pony-tailed girl that we came to know and love!
While girls like Saturn Girl, Shrinking Violet and Dream Girl were heating up the Legion Outposts, Tinya always came across as the warm and bubbly “best friend” to everyone, she was the “sweet” girl! In fact, I always used to read the old 25¢ Superboy comics thinking that she looked an awful lot like Dawn Wells a.k.a. Many Ann Summers of Gilligan’s Island!
Most of these scans come courtesy of my beloved beat-up copy of Superboy starring the Legion Of Super-Heroes #203, an issue which Mike Grell seemed particularly inspired with his depictions of Tinya. She looked so adorable in every panel! The illustration of Tinya on the cover is a fave, too, drawn by the master himself, NICK CARDY. ..Can this man EVER draw a bad picture of a girl?
Phantom Girl:
First Appearance: Action Comics #276 by Jerry Seigel and Jim Mooney
Favorite Artists: Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell ( the Legion Immortals! )
And so it was that they recruited the gorgeous Glamazon, whom I found out had originally appeared to battle the Thing before developing a high-school girl crush on him!
In the end, it turned out that her love of the Thing was stronger than anyone thought, for it turned out that she’s only joined the Frightful Four to keep an eye on their shenanigans! And so the Wizard ended up with egg on his face again!
This story was so fun and interesting, I developed a lifelong love of the Amazonian beauty!
And to think, stories illustrated by George Perez and John Byrne were still to come !
Thundra
First appearance
Fantastic Four #129
by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway
Well, it was an overwhelming success, and I came prepared and made sure I got the whole thing on cassette tape. Good thing too, because I had to make copies of that reading for many many friends, and it occurred to me that it would be great to share it with other Mark and Brian fans out there who either haven’t heard it before or have special memories of hearing it on that incredible broadcast!
It was because of this reading that I eventually purchased my own copy of the Allsburg book, and I was thinking about scanning the pages so you could read along with it... but then I decided the best way to hear it is the way I heard it that morning- Just close your eyes and listen to Chuck reading the story, and your own imagination will supply all the pictures you need!
What would Christmas be without Christmas Carols? After an interesting discussion about their favorite Holiday Tunes, Mark and Brian got a call from a small group of Christmas Carolers…This Choir featured only seven vocalists, but sounded just like pure heaven!
Their vocals were probably pretty loud, and unfortunately the connection over the phone seemed to sound “distorted” at times (especially in the beginning), but wait til you hear the buildup! OMG! An absolutely amazing (if short) performance of “O Holy Night”!
Afterward Brian jokes, “Hey Amy, one of the guys was off!” then he laughs, and asks how many people were singing…He’s simply astounded that there’s only SEVEN people singing!
Bacardi Rum Cake
While discussing the various food items that they’d brought for their Christmas potluck, show producer Frank “Mr. Owl” Murphy related a short but interesting story about the Bacardi Rum Cake his wife had made…
Top 9 Rejected Elmo Dolls
At the time this segment aired, the "Tickle Me Elmo Doll" was the hottest Christmas toy in the market, and Mark and Brian ran with this idea by coming up with the Top 9 Dolls (even though there's 15) that were REJECTED before they came up with "Tickling"!
As I’ve mentioned before in previous posts, I was a HUGE fan of the KLOS Radio Program featuring Mark and Brian, and would listen to the show religiously every day throughout the years, til the show was unceremoniously yanked off the Hawaii airwaves, an evil act that I’ve never forgiven them for!
The Holidays were especially special ones to tune on to, because the show was filled with such warmth and real nostalgic conversations of magical Christmases of childhood, including Christmas songs, stories and movies, not to mention everyone’s memories of Christmas as kids.I've taken the time to rip some of my favorite Christmas skits (that I managed to capture on tape) to MP3s so y'all can enjoy them and get into that Christmas mood, too!
The Reindeer Audition Tape
In this scenario, Mark and Brian enter the "Rare Footage" Vault to discover the Reindeer Audition Tapes! The Setup is: We all know Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer was the one chosen to have a theme song for himself, but what is not so well known is that ALL the reindeer submitted THEIR theme songs to Santa for consideration!
Gotta laugh when Mark tries to "Ho Ho Ho" like Santa, and Brian asks, "Ed MacMahon here?" HAHAHAHAHA!
PS: Funny how the electric door to the Rare Footage vault sounds so much like Pink Floyd! :)
Being a Huge fan of THE WHO lead quite naturally to a all-encompassing love of lead guitarist/ songwriter Pete Townshend’s work as well, and from albums like Who Came First down through the Lifehouse project and more, his songs have always been just as meaningful to me as his accomplishments with the band.
In the early 80’s, Pete released an unusual collection called SCOOP…this was an album made up of unreleased songs, ideas, and precious demos that had been gathering up in Pete Townshend’s vaults. Among the many, many incredible songs, was a track called “You Came Back”, a tune that immediately got my attention with its catchy guitar riff...
Listening to the song’s lyrics for the first time, I had the distinct feeling it was another bawdy ditty of Pete’s a la Squeezebox, when I heard the line “That girl with the umbrella used to be a fella”…my first thoughts were that it was a song about a transvestite! Then the next verse sang about “remembering being dead and alive”, and trying to remember names of people’s faces…was this a “drinking til you blackout” song like Who Are You?
I didn’t know, but something about the gentle way the song was played and orchestrated made me feel like it was a particularly intimate song, really wistful and dreamy-like in feeling, despite not knowing its meaning, the melody still had that power to move me.
I’d love to say that I figured it out all by myself, but the fact of the matter is, after puzzling about the song for weeks, I finally gave up and took a peek at the liner notes in the CD booklet, and read the explanation given by Pete himself:
You Came Back:
“This is a real favorite of mine about, you guessed it, Reincarnation.
The fact that I never got around to putting drums on it makes the exchanged guitar rhythms, played on an inexpensive CORAL guitar, more effective. Lead Guitar also missing, I’m afraid.”
OH MY GOSH! REINCARNATION? I hurriedly went back and put the CD in again and listened to the song with renewed eyes…it ALL made sense! Now all those confusing lyrics lent itself to one of the most gentle, wistful tunes ever!
Listen to Pete’s singing. This is one of the most sincere, heartfelt songs I think I’ve ever heard him sing, and when you consider the man has made a career out of wearing his heart on his sleeve, that’ s quite an accomplishment. Sometimes when I listen to it, I can’t believe it’s this unknown song tucked away on an “obscure and unreleased” CD package, but that’s alright by me…finding songs like these are like finding hidden treasures!
And Pete? Yeah, It’s a real favorite of mine, too!
An inspirational song for anyone who’s lost someone important to them. It’s hopeful to believe that our loved ones will always be with us even after they’ve departed!
Hey little girl playing in the street
naked as an apple, no shoes on your feet.
I think I can remember you
You look a whole lot better off than you used to do.
Hey little boy, throw me the ball.
The kids in the park say you're the dirtiest of all.
Ain't I met you sometime before
when the old street was here, and the grocer's store?
You came back, you came back,
And I'm glad you picked my time.
You came back, you came back
And by that mischievous look in your eye,
I'd say before long, if I'm not wrong,
You'll be back , you'll come back again
Before long, and I'm not wrong
You'll be back
You'll be back again.
Things have fallen into place, puttin' names on every face
Remember bein' dead and alive.
What could be the key
Am I crazy as I seem?
Can I believe what I see with my own eyes?
That girl with the umbrella used to be a fella
He used to be my very good friend.
Now I recall, and the mystery thins
I've been here before and done million things.
If it's all right with you, I'll remember you, too.
But I won't tell you who you were last time.
But you're making up for it now.
I suffer amnesia when you kiss my brow.
You came back. You came back.
And I'm glad you picked my time.
You came back, You came back.
And with that mischievous look in your eye
I'd say that before long,
If I'm not wrong,
You'll be back
You'll come back again.
The first time I saw American Graffiti must have been around 1978 on the telly, which would have made me about 12 years old, and I have to tell you, Debbie was everything a 12 year old kid could fantasize about: Super Cute, Loud, Naughty, Sassy, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, willing to give the unpopular loser (Terry the Toad, as played by Charlie Martin Smith) the time of day! Why, she was an…an…ANGEL! Ahahahaha!
So yeah, I was pretty infatuated with Candy Clark! I remember this one time, a kid brought to class the AMERICAN GRAFFITI novelized paperback that was the movie tie-in book, one of those books that had a bunch of pages with black and white pictures in the middle, you know the ones I mean. Anyway, I desperately wanted to see if there were any pictures of Debbie in that paperback, but that stupid kid refused to let me see it, because he was more interested in running around the class showing all the girls the picture from the movie of some guy mooning his butt out a moving car! Grrr…
I’ll tell you a funny coincidence… I was SO infatuated with Candy Clark: I remember a neighbor had a copy of HUSTLER laying around with a cute blonde on the cover, and the first thing my mind said was “WOW! that girl looks like…DEBBIE!” I remember wondering if it WAS Candy Clark! After all, this was the year when the scandal of Angie “Police Woman” Dickinson nude shots were all the buzz, so WHY NOT pics of Candy Clark?
Well, it wasn’t Candy Clark, and I would have forgotten all about it, but in an interesting turn of events,I was to come across the cover again when the model on the HUSTLER cover was revealed to be none other than Dale Bozzio, she of MISSING PERSONS fame! I remember when they showed the cover of the magazine, I immediately recognized it, exclaiming, “Hey! Dale was that model I thought looked like Candy Clark!” (It’s the December 1982 issue, if you care to look it up) Funny thing though, looking at the cover NOW, she doesn’t look much like Debbie, after all! HAHAHA!
I remember a year or so after I’d fallen in love with Candy Clark, they released a sequel to American Graffiti called MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITI (how original!), and I really had to BEG my friends to come down with me to see the movie, because I desperately needed to see it!! One of the main reasons I wanted to see this, of course, was because Candy Clark was one of the cast members from the original movie that would be reprising her role.
Well, I’d like to say that It was great and I was blown away, but the fact of the matter was, I hadn’t realized that the Debbie character was wearing a fluffy blonde WIG in the first movie, and no such wig was found atop the head of Candy Clark in the second one! GASP! Why, I didn’t even RECOGNIZE Candy when she first appeared…it was only after watching the scene that I figured it out, and folks, I mean to tell you…I WAS CRUSHED! I mean, Candy was still PRETTY and all, but it just wasn't my 6th Grade dream girl on that screen!
Oh Well. And, to be honest, it wasn’t just her- the movie was supposed to reflect the late sixties hippie-culture, peace, Vietnam War, etc, and well, it just didn’t have that magic the first one had.
Oh well…I still had the original movie to keep me company!
Years later, the American Graffiti Movie came out on Laserdisc(!),and I was able to enjoy the movie without having to either rent it or wait for it to appear on TV, and once again, I was instantly taken back to my Debbie-obsessed days! THEN, even MORE years later, when the Collector’s Edition DVD came out, I watched it, and yep, fell in love AGAIN!
I may pass on ever needing to see “More” American Graffiti again, but the original will always remain one of my very favorite movies of all time, and you can be sure that each time I re-watch it, I will have Candy Clark on the brain, as well!
Visit Candy at her myspace page, a haven for Debbie-obsessed fans like me!
