You down with OTR? We down with OTR!

[Note: Check This $#!% Out was originally a seperate blog but is now a feature of patokon blog]

What is OTR?
OTR is the most awesome thing ever!
Remember the scene in "A Christmas Story" when Ralphie gets his secret decoder ring and can't wait to decode his first message?

For my generation, listening to radio drama wasn't big on our list of entertainment, but seeing Ralphie decode that message (however disappointing) was kinda cool. Little did I know, years later I would become quite the fan of OTR (Old Time Radio). I guess it might have been just a matter of time since I had listened to a few recordings of The Inner Sanctum, which was always good for a scare, I was a fan of Bogart's Sam Spade early on, and I was already into comic strips from the thirties and forties. As I grew older I would try to catch reruns of Burns and Allen, Jack Benny, and other shows which I didn't even know had started on the radio.
Well, thanks to the magic of the INTERNET, I became connected to these shows and more! And now YOU CAN TOO!!

Here are some great resources:
The OTR.Network Library.
Over 12,000 shows for FREE!

Internet Archive (Old Time Radio Archive)
Most popular show "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" about an insurance investigator.

Old Time Radio Fans dot com
Cool cuz it also has a buncha commercials from the past including one for Lucky Beer which uses the phrase "Get Lucky!" Because if you're drinking that crappy beer, you'll need it!

OTR - Radio Days
This is a good resource because it gives you some OTR history.

The Monster Club
Great selection of old horror and Sci-Fi shows here.

Now lemme tell you my favorite shows:
-Detective shows
Adventures of Sam Spade (serious action, light-hearted hero)
Adventures of Philip Marlowe (serious action, more serious hero)
Nick Carter, Master Detective (fun stuff)
Candy Matson (a tough dame. I like her)
-Horror
Inner Sanctum (Goofy emcee, but often has bone-chilling stories)
Suspense (some real good shows)
CBS Radio Mystery Theater (big name stars often join in the mayhem)
-Sci-fi
X Minus One (anything with robots is good, eh?)
Dimension X (or mad scientists)
2000 Plus (or aliens)
-Comedy
Burns and Allen is my fave
The Mel Blanc show was a surprise discovery. I only knew him as the voice of the Looney Tunes.
-Adventure
Terry and the Pirates (a great comic, an amazing show)
Captain Midnight (after Ovaltine dropped Little Orphan Annie, they sponsored this show)
Mandrake the Magician (originally a cool comic, once parodied by MAD magazine)

So don't forget to check this $#!% out, and let me know if you find anything cool or if you have any recommendations!

Starry-eyed heroes of Akira 'Leiji' Matsumoto

Hello, friends and manga-philes. You probably know that my interest in Japan was originally fueled by a combined interest in Japanese animation and martial arts. My interests expanded somewhat over the years, but one big change happened about the age of 15 when I bought my first Japanese collected comic. From that moment on, I became more interested in comics than animation and eventually after moving to Japan, I started to collect the comics of Mr. Leiji Matsumoto . At first, I was put off by the heavy-lined art and blocky characters, but the more I got into the stories, the less I cared about the style. Eventually, though, I started to appreciate the artistry much in the same way it took me a while to warm to Jack Kirby's art. Like most Leiji fans, I was heavy into Space Cruiser Yamato , Captain Harlock , Queen Emeraldas , and finally, Galaxy Express 999 . These comics were created in the 70's and are representative of ...

Comic Book Sound Effect Dictionary!

[Note: Check This $#!% Out was originally a seperate blog but is now a feature of patokon blog ] If you love comics, or merely find them curious, you're sure to be somewhat fascinated with one of the unique features of sequential art - sound effects. The curious thing is that the earliest SFX were based on words that were already based on sounds that the words' meanings represented. RING sounds like something ringing just as GONG sounds like you just banged a gong. Get your SFX fix by following @ComicBookSndFX for tweets of entries from the Comic Book Sound Effect Dictionary (coming soon) or you can follow the English - Japanese version @AmeComiSFX that was previously only available at Tokyo's Comiket. Just remember...KRA-KOW!! is more than a place in Poland.

Tokyo Akahon Manga “Gulliver’s Travels” by NAKAMURA Hiroshi

According to a post by akahon manga researcher Yuuzora Retro (pen name), the Tokyo-based publisher Taikōdō ( 泰光堂 ) created their Manga Classics series in response to the PTA backlash against manga contributing to delinquency in Osaka. This is Gulliver’s Travels by NAKAMURA Hiroshi (中村ひろし), a B6-sized 3-color akahon* printed with red ink fills on either blue or green lines costing 85 yen. NAKAMURA seemed to be the main artist for Taikōdō as evinced by the ad pages at the back. There is no publishing date, but it probably wasn't too far from 1951 when "Cinderella" and "Snow White" from the same series were published. Looking at the stamps on the endpapers on the back, we can see that this particular book was rented out at a kashihon-ya (rental comic shop) in Saga, Kyushu called Imazato Neo Shobō. It was lent to me by a Mr. Fujita, a collector heavy into Showa-era items. I will continue to introduce the books I was able to borrow from his...

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