Alternative Mindz Blog

these are some photos of our police station location

first is the hallway leading to the interogation rooms

next is interogation room 1

It’s Christmas time again ….but this year lets have a little more Spirit. With the up coming Spirit film opening on Christmas day, I wanted to spread some holiday cheer and tell people

The history of the Spirit.

But before we can talk about the Spirit we must talk about the man behind the hero.

William Erwin Eisner: born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jewish immigrants — his father was a former painter, marginally successful entrepreneur, and one-time manufacturer in Manhattan’s Seventh Avenue garment district. Eisner attended DeWitt Clinton High School.

He drew for the school newspaper (The Clintonian), the literary magazine (The Magpie) and the yearbook, and did stage design, leading him to consider doing that kind of work for theater. Upon graduation, he studied under Canadian artist George Brandt Bridgman.

In “late ‘39, just before Christmas time,” Eisner recalled, Quality Comics publisher Everett M. “Busy” Arnold “came to me and said that the Sunday newspapers were looking for a way of getting into this comic book boom,” In a 2004 interview, he elaborated on that meeting:

‘Busy’ invited me up for lunch one day and introduced me to Henry Martin sales manager of the Des Moines Register and Tribune Syndicate, who said, ‘The newspapers in this country, particularly the Sunday papers, are looking to compete with comics books,and they would like to get a comic-book insert into the newspapers.

(Alot of publishers at the time felt that the 10 cent comic books where out selling newspapers and some fear that comic books may kill the newspaper market)

‘ … Martin asked if I could do it. … It meant that I’d have to leave Eisner & Iger which was making money; we were very profitable at that time and things were going very well. A hard decision. Anyway, I agreed to do the Sunday comic book and we started discussing the deal which was that we’d be partners in the ‘Comic Book Section,’ as they called it at that time. And also, I would produce two other magazines in partnership with Arnold.

Eisner negotiated an agreement with the syndicate in which Arnold would copyright The Spirit, but, “Written down in the contract I had with ‘Busy’ Arnold — and this contract exists today as the basis for my copyright ownership — Arnold agreed that it was my property. They agreed that if we had a split-up in anyway, the property would revert to me on that day that happened. My attorney went to ‘Busy’ Arnold and his family, and they all signed a release agreeing that they would not pursue the question of ownership” This would include the eventual backup features, “Mr. Mystic” and “Lady Luck.”

Eisner creates The Spirit

The Spirit chronicled the adventures of a masked crime-fighter who fought crime with the blessing of the city’s police commissioner Dolan, an old friend. Despite the Spirit’s origin as a detective named Denny Colt, his real identity was virtually unmentioned again and for all intents and purposes he was simply “the Spirit”. The stories ranged through a wide variety of styles, from straightforward crime drama and noir to lighthearted adventure, from mystery and horror to comedy and love stories, often with hybrid elements that twisted genre and expectations.

The Spirit, referred to as “the only real middle-class crime fighter”,the hero persona of young detective Denny Colt. Presumed killed in the first three pages of the premiere story, Colt later revealed to his friend, Central City Police Commissioner Dolan, that he had in fact gone into suspended animation caused by one of arch-villain Dr. Cobra’s experiments. When Colt awakened in Wildwood Cemetery, he established a base there and, using his new found anonymity, began a life of fighting crime wearing only a small domino mask, blue business suit, red necktie, fedora hat and gloves for a costume. The Spirit dispensed justice, funding his adventures with the rewards for capturing villains.

Will started drawing the Spirit as a traditional detective that he based on old pulp magazine. suit,tie and hat while in the middle of the design Will recieves a phone call from the publisher asking how things were coming along and ask if the hero had a mask

since all costumed crime fighters had masks ……

Will looking at he’s drawing said yes he does and started drawing a mask on the Spirit.

Because of this phone call the Spirit found his persona

The Spirit was based originally in New York City which soon changed to Central City, but his adventures took him around the globe. He met up with eccentrics, crazy, and beautiful but deadly femme fatales, bringing his own form of justice to all of them. The story changed continually, but certain themes remained constant: the love between the Spirit and Dolan’s feisty protofeminist daughter Ellen; the annual “Christmas Spirit” stories; and the Octopus (a psychopathic criminal mastermind who was never seen, except for his distinctive gloves).

so now that you have a taste for the Spirit take your want to the movies and see the film with an open mind and a big bucket of popcorn

one last thing go here and here

THE SERPENT WITH EIGHT HEADS

The Gods angry over the actions of the wild God Susanoh exiled him from Heaven and he landed on “Izumo.”

While he lived out his time banished on Izumo,he heard a tale that every year a serpent with eight heads ate one of the village girls.This particular year, the victim was supposed to be Princess Kusinada. Susanoh made an offer to her parents that he would marry Princess Kusinada if he could save her life. Her parents accepted his offer with great pleasure.
Following Susanoh’s instruction, the people in the village made a fence with eight gates and put a jar filled with sake under each gate. Then the serpent came. Each of his heads went to one of the gates and started to drink the sake. Immediately, the monster got drunk and Susanoh cut him into the pieces while he was sleeping. Susanoh married Princess Kushinada as he promised, and he built a big palace in Izumo.

Who is Susanoh?
Susanoh is a brother of the greatest Japanese goddess, Amaterass. He can be compared to Poseidon in Greek myth, but this story is very similar to Heracles’ great work about killing Hydra.

It’s said that Hydra represents streams of water, and in case of the Japanese story, the serpent with eight heads could be a flood or lava flow

Izumo
“Izumo-city” is in the western part of Japan and it’s believed that the Japanese myth started in that area

Eight
In ancient times in Japan, “eight” meant “many.” So the actual number of the serpent heads could be 10 or 100 or more

If you know anything about anything you will know who Betty Page was and is! she is the reason for almost the whole entire cheese cake model revival. without Betty gracing the covers of magazines comic book artist and painters would have no basis for the perfect female form. At about 10:57pm I get a call from my close friend and website researcher who broke the news to us about her passing. What do you say? what can you say?

Nothing………………………………………………………..

for people out of the loop about Betty Page here is a quick break down of the One and Only

Bettie Page was born Betty Mae Page on April 22, 1923 the second child of Walter Roy Page and Edna Mae Pirtle. As the salutatorian of her class,on June 6, 1940, Bettie Page graduated from high school with a scholarship and enrolled at George Peabody College with the intention of becoming a teacher. However, the next fall she began studying acting, hoping to become a movie star. At the same time, she began her first job, typing for author Alfred Leland Crab. Page graduated from Peabody with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1944. In 1943, she married high school classmate Billy Neal in a simple courthouse ceremony shortly before he was drafted into the Navy for service in World War I1. For the next few years, Bettie moved from San Francisco to Nashville to Miami and to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where she felt a special affinity with the country and its culture.In November 1947, while back in the United States, Bettie filed for divorce from Neal.

Following her divorce, Page worked briefly in San Francisco, and in Haiti. She moved to New York City, where she hoped to find work as an actress. In the meantime, she supported herself by working as a secretary. In 1950, while walking along the Coney Island shore, Bettie met Jerry Tibbs, a police officer with an interest in photography. Bettie was a willing model, and Tibbs took pictures of her and put together her first pinup portfolio.

soon she became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos. She was also one of the earliest Playmates of the Month for Playboy magazine.she faded into obscurity in the 1960s after converting to Christianity and serving as a Baptist missionary in Angola

she experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1980s and now has a significant cult following. Her look, including her jet black hair and trademark bangs, has influenced many artists. some of the more known names are Jim Silke, Dave Stevens,Greg Theakston and comic book publisher Eros comics.

her site

Bettie Page (April 22, 1923 – December 11, 2008)

check out the site here

We have a good feeling this film will do alot better than the other two versions of the Punisher.

a brief history of the Punisher

The Punisher, is a vigilante who considers killing, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence and torture to be acceptable crime-fighting tactics. Driven by the deaths of his family, who were killed by the mob when they witnessed a gangland execution in New York City’s Central Park, Frank Castle becomes the Punisher wageing  a one-man war on the mob and all criminals in general by using all manner of weaponry.His family’s killers were the first to be slain. A war veteran, Castle is a master of martial arts, stealth tactics, and a wide variety of weapons.

The Punisher’s brutal nature and willingness to kill made him a novel character in mainstream American comic books in 1974. By the late 1980s, he was part of a wave of psychologically troubled antiheroes and was featured in several monthly publications, including The Punisher War Journal, The Punisher War Zone, and The Punisher Armory.

The Punisher was created by Gerry Conway and his first appearance was illustrated by Ross Andru in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #129 (Feb. 1974). Conway had drawn a character with a small death’s head skull on one breast. Marvel’s then art director John Romita, Sr. took the basic design, blew the skull up to huge size, taking up most of the character’s chest, and added a cartridge bandolier that formed the skull’s teeth.

Three movie adaptations have been released, one in 1989, which features Dolph Lundgren as the Punisher,which draws much criticism from comic fans due to the fact of the Punisher not having his trade mark skull shirt. Another in 2004, with the character being played by Thomas Jane. A third adaptation  with Ray Stevenson as Castle and is being released on December 5, 2008.