I like planes and aviation in general, and have a particular fondness for some of the famous Lockheed planes such as the WWII P-38 Lightning and that mach 3 wonder jet the SR-71 Blackbird. This illustration of Lockheed “Skunk Works” projects, in typical Popular Mechanics style, is very cool. This comes from an excellent article on Retro Thing about the famous “Skunk Works”. Read the full article here.

Remarkable and mesmerizing Flash motion graphics by Jim Bumgardner of coverpop.com. These animations are a digital realization and homage to the early work of John Whitney, famed motion graphics pioneer of the 1940’s through the 1990’s. Amazing!

And while we’re at it, take a look at coverpop.com…What an amazing interface! You can spend some serious time browsing through just a few of these great magazine and book covers! This guy really knows his Flash actionscript!

Jim Bumgardner is an amazing guy. His website, krazydad.com, is filled with a bunch of Flash–based games and “software toys”(his term)…my kind of guy! His mazes (in his Fun and Games area) and “springy titles” are awesome! He is also the author of my favorite screensaver ever…MetaScope! It is a virtual kaleidoscope on your pc that searches the internet for images of your choosing, automatically creating a kaleidoscope on your desktop. If you thought those fishtank screensavers were cool, what until you see this…totally mesmerizing!

“Who’s Roger Bradfield, you say?” Anyone who has eaten Kix, Trix, or Wheaties cereals should know! He created the great graphic art for the cereal boxes in the 1960’s, among many other projects. For a great blog post on Mr. Bradfield, see this article by Dan Goodsell. Very cool. Gimme some Trix!

In addition to the Marvel Masterworks website I mentioned in a previous post, here are a couple more must–see websites for Marvel Maniacs.

Sadly, the “Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Index” link is no longer valid. I do hope that the author brings this site back as it was a tremendous resource for Marvel fans. If anyone has an update for this, let me know and I will gladly update the link. Great news! The link to the Silver Age marvel Comics Cover index is back. Thanks a lot, Rand.

The first is the Silver Age Marvel Comics Cover Index, which is a great resource giving you examples of every Silver Age Marvel cover in a great month–by–month format. So, for example, if you wanted to see every cover for the month that Spider–Man #14 (July 1964, 1st appearance of the Green Goblin, by the way) was produced, you can. Very cool! Incidentally, this was the first Marvel book I remember owning and reading as a 5–year–old kid. I read this baby until it was in tatters. Nice one to start with, huh? I’ve been of fan of artist Steve Ditko, Spidey, and the Green Goblin ever since!

The second is a companion website that lists all of the great Marvel Bullpen Bulletins that were such a huge part of Marvel comics and their fans. Inspired and mostly written by Stan Lee, they are written in his cool, breezy style that made all of us feel as if he were writing directly to us. Awesome, “didja know!”

Yes, Virginia, Dr. Seuss was a genius even before he wrote his books. Take a look at his wonderful advertising art. It will definitely make you smile! (In his list of clients is Stromberg Carlson, which was a well–known speaker maker. I remember the sweet sound these babies had from my dad’s hi–fi setup…Nice!)

I recently bought and watched the new DVD release of perhaps the greatest of the racing movies, Grand Prix. I remember seeing this as a kid of eight in 1966. (You do the math!) What an impact it had…the stunning cinematography and vibrating, road–level views of the famous Formula 1 racecourses really thrilled me! It also featured James Garner, who has always been a favorite actor of mine.

Having been years since I last saw this movie, I was really looking forward to seeing it again. I also wanted to see if it was as good as I remembered…to see if it still stood up after all these years. So…has it?

Well, in pure racing terms, it sure has. The DVD transfer is crisp and clean, the colors pure with no bleeding. And the racing scenes…fantastic! There is no other word for it. After all these years, it still has the most exciting racing scenes of any movie ever made, period! You get a view of the racing that actually makes you feel like a part of it. Another thing that makes the racing so special is that it featured the actual Formula 1 racing stars of the day driving in the racing scenes! If you’ve ever heard of Dan Gurney, Graham Hill, Jimmy Clark, or Phil Hill, well, they’re in here driving! And the cars of this period were so beautiful…It takes me back to those days as a kid collecting the Matchbox replicas of the cars that are featured in this movie.

But, on the negative side, I also didn’t remember the cheesy melodrama in–between all the racing scenes. Jessica Walter, of psycho–“Play Misty For Me” fame, really revs the cheese meter, and most of the “drama” really rings false, like something from daytime soaps. Luckily, James Garner is his usual likeable leading–man self, while Yves Montand also brings a likeable characterization as an “old–pro” F1 racer coming to the end of his career. Thankfully, this movie is mostly racing, so these temporary drama “breaks” aren’t too irritating.

This DVD also has some great special features, including some really interesting documentaries about the making of the film and the staging of the racing scenes. These scenes were staged at the same time as the actual Formula 1 races were being held, so there was a ton of prep work involved in this movie. And now that the sport has been highly corporatized and become super expensive, a movie like this will probably never be shot again, at least in true live–action! So if you are ready for some real Formula 1 race action, pop this in, grin through all the racing magic, and grit your teeth slightly at the melodrama in–between. Cheer up though, the next racing scene is just around the bend!