Dart’s Rant Of The Day: The Overcommercialization Of Streetball

I feel asleep on my couch after watching a late episode of Baseball Tonight and I woke up around 2 AM to catch an episode of Streetball: The 2007 And 1 Tour. I thought the show wasn’t coming on this year seeing as half of the original And 1 players including the winner of last year’s contest, Jerome “Circus” Holman left And 1 early in 2007. This year’s And 1 Tour was garbage as it only stopped in 10 locations and all of the games were played outdoors. Last year, And 1 played open runs outdoors and played games in 20+ arenas all over the country. The players that left the And 1 Tour started the Ball 4 Real Tour instead. This tour played in arenas all over the US like the And 1 tour used to and it split the original And 1 squad right down the middle.

Of course, back in 1998 when the And 1 mixtape was first released no one ever would’ve ever seen this coming. The players felt like they were being exploited by the And 1 corporation and that they should’ve seen a lot more money. After all, it was them that made And 1 the leading shoe of choice amongst NBA players and a Fortune 500 company and not the guys that came up with the catchy slogans for those goddamn T shirts. After they got the cover of Sports Illustrated back in 2005 you just knew that this would all end badly for And 1 and it’s players.

Growing up, I heard the occassional stories and legends about some of the greatest ballers that never made it to the NBA but played at Holcombe Rucker Park in Harlem against some of the best players the pro ranks had to offer and more than held their own. Stories about Earl “The Goat” Manigault, Pee Wee Kirkland, Joe “The Destroyer” Hammond, Slyvester “Fly” Williams, Herman “Helicopter” Knowings and a host of other players became like the hood version of tall tales.

Sure we had players that were nice come through every few years, but few cats that could be considered streetball legends like the ones they had in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit and Baltimore/D.C. area. Back then, streetball was an underground thing that few people paid attention to. Sure, some people wrote books and newspaper articles about these players from time to time but streetball didn’t pop up on most sports fans radars, forget about corporations. Nowadays, the average 12 year old basketball fan can rattle off his 10 favorite streetball players and perform their signature moves right off of the DVD’s he has.

Starting back in the early 90’s, all you could hope for was to hear some stories about what happened at the Entertainer’s Basketball Classic at the Rucker secondhand. There was no news coverage, no videotape, nothing whatsoever to keep you informed about who the new ill players were. You got their government names and you had to wait for the players to enter college to see what they could do on the court. This is what happened when God Shammgod AKA Shammgod Wells (pictured below), Shaheen Halloway, Kareem Reid, Scientific Mapp, Felipe Lopez, Bevon Robin, Rafer Alston, Charles Jones and several other players entered the college game.

Even the sports commentators would reference their AAU and streetball careers during their college games. The AAU/streetball influence was becoming more and more prevalent in the college game until it culminated in Michigan’s recruitment of the Fab Five of Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson. Their bald heads, long shorts and black socks were a sign to basketball purists that things would never be the same again.

With the creation of Slam mgazine back in 1994 you finally got to read the stories of some of the greatest streetball legends ever. You also got coverage of the latest streetball players and up and comers. Then came the release of the first And 1 mixtape and the world was never the same again. After that 35 minute tape showing highlights, dunks and dribbling tricks featuring Rafer “Skip To My Lou” Alston (below) who later attended Fresno State University before declaring for the NBA Draft. The brass at And 1 had the idea to play games featuring some of the best players they could find and tape them. Later on, these same players would suggest that they play in different locales against local competition and tape it and that eventually evolved into what is now known as the And 1 Tour.

Kids all over the country were watching those same And 1 tapes and trying to attend those games. This caused a snowball effect that led to streetball becoming super popular, then the floodgates opened. The internet also helped to get the word out about the world of streetball as sites like insidehoops.com, slamonline.com and nbadraft.net popped up providing articles and updates of AAU and summer basketball tournaments.

In 1998 TNT produced a film called “On Hallowed Ground: The Champions Of Rucker Park” premiered, a film called “Soul In The Hole” was created documenting the rise and fall of Ed “Booger” Smith, a streetball legend and yet another NYC point guard that fell short of attaining his dream of basketball stardom. After that, the Entertainer’s Basketball Classic at Rucker Park became hot all over again.

The NBA even became a sponsor of the EBC starting in 2002 by airing recorded games from Rucker Park on NBA TV going as far as to run a website for them. EBC DVD’s (below) began flying off of the shelves almost as fast as the new And 1 DVD’s were. The NBA even encouraged it’s players to play in the EBC to continue the tradition of NBA players competing at Rucker Park...that is, until the US lost in the 2004 Summer Olympics to a bunch of teams playing structured, team ball. The next summer the EBC was nowhere to be found on NBA TV. The Knicks website featured weekly EBC recaps, though.

Next came the Slam From The Streets series and accusations from others in the streetball community that And 1played watered down basketball. The last thing any of the players on the And 1 Tour wanted to be seen as were the modern day version of the Harlem Globetrotters. They didn’t want to be perceived as clowns but they also didn’t want to lose the hook that made them popular. They found themselves constantly trying to stay on that middle ground while at the same time defending themselves from purists that blamed them for contributing to the deterioration of the fundamental skills of today’s basketball players.

Nowadays you have professional streetball leagues, the YPA Tour, Ball 4 Real Tour, And 1 Tour, The Notic and several others popping up all over the place. Streetball has become a multi million dollar business involving the sales of everything from headbands, jerseys, shorts and soft drinks. Whereas before the dream was to get recognized for your playing ability and one day make the league, the dream has now become to one day be the next Hot Sauce or Professor and live off of the money made from personal appearances and endorsement deals. Huh? What?

Streetball captured the mainstreams attention through the famous Nike Freestyle commercial, MTV’s Harlem Hoops and Who Got Game series’, Nike/MTV2’s King Of The Court tournaments, ESPN’s City Slam and BET’s coverage of the EBC and EBC America tournaments. Then came the videogames like Street Hoops, NBA Street, NBA Ballers and And 1 Streetball. Not too long after Hollywood came calling, making a Like Mike sequel and movies like Crossover.

Kids now have it in their heads that they can become the next streetball legend, forgetting that the only reason people ended up playing streetball way because for whatever reason they couldn’t make it to the NBA. The exposure they got playing streetball was supposed to open up doors for them to eventually play in the NBA. When Shane Drisdon, James Williams, Waliy Dixon, Anthony Heyward, Tim Gittens, Robert Martin, Aaron Owens, Lonnie Harrell, Tyrone Evans and several other cats first started out playing on the streetball circuit it was so they could get scouts to see them and get the chance to play in a minor league like the CBA, ABA, NBDL or hopefully crack an NBA summer league team to get an NBA tryout.

Cats nowadays aren’t even concerned about making the NBA anymore, they just wanna get on the bus or get off a couple of tricks on a DVD not realizing that the guys they’re watching have been playing basketball at every level for almost a decade and resorted to playing that way just to get noticed. To make mattersworse, since the NBA has been trying to field a team to win back the gold medal in basketball for the 2008 Olympics, it’s been discouraging players from playing at the Rucker during the summer so that they can participate in helping train candidates for the next Team USA by staying available to play with a select team to scrimmage them in preparation for the basketball world championships and the upcoming Olympics.

This past summer, streetball has become the red headed stepchild in favor of coverage of Team USA as they scrimmaged and played in the world qualifying tournament for the Olympics. The NBA no longer carries EBC games and few if any NBA players will appear at the Rucker. Since And 1’s team splintered off and the majority of the well known veterans left (after a couple of And 1 veterans contracts weren’t renewed the previous year) the And 1 team didn’t carry the prestige it once did anymore. The only way to find out what happened at the EBC was to wait for them to finally update their website. The EBC America final happened back on August 21st and the score still hasn’t been posted on the website to this very day. I found out what happened from a Baltimore/DC area newspaper article .

Now streetball has become as mainstream as regular basketball. Nine year old kids in the suburbs are doing the same ball tricks they saw Bone Collector, Anti Freeze, Homocide and The Future do on TV when they play pickup games with their friends. When they play Live 08, they’ll use the Create A Player feature to make Mr. 720 and stick him on their favorite team. The sad part is that with the proliferation and oversaturation of streetball that it’s taken all of the excitement out of something I used to love...this is the first summer in more than 10 years that I didn’t even care enough to try to find out who won the EBC Championship at the Rucker...damn shame it turned out to be a team sponsored by Rocsi of BET's 106 & Park.

Makes me wanna holler...© Marvin Gaye

One.

Revenge Of The 80’s presents Robotech

In 1982 the anime series Super Dimensional Fortress Macross premiered in Japan. It was wildly successful and it even spawned an animated film based on the series called “Do You Remember Love?” that was also a hit in 1984. Later that same year, the team at Harmony Gold headed by Carl Macek had the idea to capitalize off of the giant robot phenomenon that had exploded in America with the popularity of Transformers and Voltron in the States and chose to edit, adapt and redub a new series for North America and Europe beginning with the Macross series.

The problem was that Macross only had 36 total episodes so they’d have to use other series related to the popular Macross program to make one cohesive series. The crew at Harmony Gold decided to add episodes from two other Macross related anime series’ called The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mosapaeda. After editing together some episodes and doing splices and major rewriting and voiceover work they were able to create an 85 episode show that they decided to call Robotech.

Robotech was split into three parts, The Macross Saga, The Robotech Masters and The Invid Invasion. The storyline had some elements of the original series but a lot of them had to be changed as they just would’ve been deemed too weird by a North American or European viewing audience. In the end Carl Macek had to create his own back story in many cases. By 1985, all of the work had been completed and it was time to sell the series and premiere it. The show was to begin airing in syndication all over North America. The shows selling point was that it not only had transforming robots, excellent action and great animation but the storyline was much like a soap opera during war time. Surprisingly, the series became a hit with not just young kids, but teenagers and adults as well.


Robotech’s opening series was the perfect hook. The Macross Saga was 36 episodes of high drama, death, deception and unrequited love. The story follows the exploits of Rick Hunter (his signature veritech pictured above), a stunt pilot that is mentored by a world famous ace fighter pilot named Roy Fokker and invited to see him off before the launch of the newly renovated alien space fortress that crash landed on Earth decades before. The war was at war but they decided to stop fighting and work together to decipher the secrets of the space fortress and it’s alien technology. The ship in christened the SDF-1 (Super Dimensional Fortress/Super Defense Fortress).



The result was the Earth learned how to harness a power called Robotechnology (or Protoculture) to create weapons and enable space travel. Rick Hunter ends up getting trapped on the ship during an alien attack and it folds into space while somehow taking the city that it was docked at with them when they folded (?). This made no sense at first because where did the city come from inside the ship if it wasn’t there before? In the original series, Macross City had ALREADY existed inside the ship and the ship wasn’t forced to take on the people of Macross City because their city somehow magically ended up inside the ship due to fold technology (Wow, this is some serious nerd shit right here).

Rick Hunter ends up joining the RDF (Robotech Defense Force) and ends up the pilot of a Veritech fighter which can transform into 3 different modes, a regular fighter jet, a robot/plane hybrid mode called a Battloid and finally into full Veritech robot mode. The Robotech Defense Force defended the Earth from a possible alien invasion...which was a good idea since the alien race called the Zentraedi attacked the Earth in hopes of retrieving the SDF for themselves. The SDF-1 is forced to fly home using it’s conventional engines while fighting off the Zentraedi armada every step of the way.




The second part of the series was by far the weakest link in the Robotech story. It dealt with the Robotech Defense Force’s exploits 20 years after the First Robotech War ended and the story centered around the half human/half Zentraedi daughter of Rick Hunter’s best friend, Max Sterling after Rick Hunter takes the SDF-3 (long story) into space on a mission to find the aliens that are looking for the SDF-1’s secrets (The Robotech Masters) home planet. They instead took most of the new war technology with them, leaving the Earth completely vulnerable to an attack from another alien attack. Ironically enough, the Robotech Masters and their massive army of clone fighters make it to Earth and attack it while the main force is away. The remaining divisions are forced to deal with a massive armada. There were so many weird storylines and occurrences in this series that a good amount of scenes that appeared in the Japanese version were completely omitted from the North American/European version...unfortunately, that didn’t make the chapter any less confusing to the viewer.



The third and final chapter of the Robotech series was called The Invid Invasion and told the story of the Earth being enslaved by the Invid (the aliens that chased both the Zentraedi and the Robotech Masters to Earth searching for the SDF-1 and it’s cargo). It turned out that the SDF-1 was carrying something called the Flower Of Life that is harvested and cultivated to produce the energy necessary to create more weapons of mass destruction for the aliens races to use and sustain their lives.

The Earth has been completely beat down after decades of alien invaders attacking them constantly and now only a handful of military forces are still active on Earth while a grassroots resistance movement fights the formidable Invid forces. The story begins when one of Rick Hunter’s soldiers ends up crash landing on Earth ahead of the SDF-3 which was supposed to return to Earth but somehow got lost during the fold to the Milky Way galaxy. He eventually falls in with a small band of rebels and leads them in the original mission to destroy Reflex Point, the nerve center of the Invid army.

Robotech was also a popular toy line, fielding multiple licenses from Tomy, Bandai, Revell, Matchbox, Playmates and Harmony Gold simultaneously. The most popular toys were the Macross veritechs, the Southern Cross Ajacs helicopters and the ultra popular transforming Cyclone motorcycles as well as the Alpha and Beta veritech fighters from the Invid Invasion. The enemy fighters sold well but the Robotech Masters Bioroid Invid Fighters and various Invid Shock Troopers far outsold the Zentraedi figures. At one point in time, Hasbro got sued because their Autobot fighter plane Jetfire was a perfect copy of Tomy/Bandai’s original Valkyrie/Veritech fighter design. Hasbro stopped producing Jetfire toys immediately afterwards.



Robotech didn’t die out after the cartoon stopped airing either, their were several comic books, novelizations, art books, video games, sequels and even a popular role playing game created by Palladium Books. To this day, Robotech is regarded as one of the best anime series’ ever made and the entire saga is now available on DVD in all of it’s incarnations.

For more information about the expansive universe that is Robotech check out the following sites:

http://www.robotech.com/
http://www.robotechmuseum.com/
http://www.therobotechpage.com/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=71

One.

What’s New In Dart’s iPod #4 AKA The Clash Of The Titans And A Little Lady

I’m back at it again, this time I’m reviewing Kanye West’s “Graduation”, 50 Cent’s “Curtis” and yet another female singer from the UK whose music may make it to our shores soon, Candie Payne. For those of you unfamiliar with my three point “Cop It Or Not” system I’ll explain for you below:


Oh No! This CD is a drink coaster/table balancer/doorstop/gerbil/hamster room divider/frisbee/discus/makeshift shield/last ditch choice for a visor/alternate shuriken choice. Sell this shit to whoever's dumb enough to buy it from you.

Maebe (Maybe)! Depending on your own set of personal preferences you might like this joint. Give it a listen first to see if it's your lane or not.

Mos Def! Cop the album when it drops...'Nuff said.

Now on to the reviews:

“Do you listen to the music or do you just skim through it?” © Jay-Z

I’ll start off with my review of 50 Cent’s “Curtis”. This album was originally supposed to be called “Before I Self Destruct” and that’s a horrible title for an album unless you’re a rock band. I was throughly bored by 50’s last project “The Massacre” and I don’t expect him to stray too far beyond his basic subject matter which consists of him being either rich as hell, horny as hell or making death threats to the listener. I haven’t liked any of the singles so I’m looking forward to actually hearing some album tracks. Let’s get started.

The album opens up with the intro from a movie I’ve yet to determine and goes straight into “My Gun Go Off”. This joint sounds like it’s fresh off of 50’s debut album (which is a good thing). The sound effects in the background include a spinning barrel and the sound of a gun sparking off...and to thinks that millions of people are going to buy this album. The next track has your head noddin’ immediately, “Man Down” also sounds like vintage 50, although it’s weird to hear someone who owns a stake in the Gluceau company talking about how he’ll kill anyone, including police who stand in his way.

Speaking of talking about killing people and how willing he is to do it, the very next track is “I’ll Still Kill” featuring everyone’s favorite underage girl humper...no, not R. Kelly! I wrote “humper”. Akon lends his annoying ass half rapping/half singing vocals to the song. His high pitched yodelling style works on this track, though. Overall, it’s a cool joint but I’m starting to feel like 50 wants me dead for some odd reason. The next track I wish was an instrumental, “I Get Money”. I admit that this owns the streets right now but I’m one of those people that listens to lyrics and this song makes my eyes roll to the back of my head. I can’t front on it, though...it’s a banger.

“Come & Go” is the typical “I don’t love them hoes” track complete with lame lyrics and 50 changing the lyrics of the song “Just Be Good To Me” during one of the verses. This joint is a yawn even though the beat is hot. “Ayo Technology” sucks horse cock. “Follow My Lead” features the Jon B. of the 00’s minus the production talent, Robin Thicke. He warbles sweetly in the background while 50 Cent spits some of the most ignorant shit you can imagine on a track for the ladies (?). This song is clearly supposed to be a single and it will be all over the radio. I don’t hate it (Yes, that’s the best I can do). This song is followed by the monster “Movin’ On Up”. This joint is the standout of the album so far in my opinion...this is another that reminds me of the early 50 Cent work circa “Get Rich Or Die Trying” before he actually took over when he was hungry and wanted knock everyone else out of the box. He doesn’t make efforts like this nearly enough. Case in point, “Straight To The Bank”.

“Straight To The Bank” sounds like he didn’t even try. The lyrics are nonexistant to anyone that’s looking for some content or quotables..it’s sounds like business talk. I didn’t put The Robb Report into my iPod, I want to hear an album. This song sucks. The next song is another bullshit single that sounds uninspired, “Amusement Park”. “Fully Loaded Clip” is a head scratcher...it sounds like a mixtape diss song but is he dissing Jay-Z and Nas (among others) for being in stable relationships while he’s obsessed with being the King Of New York? I felt the same way about this track when I first heard it way back..Huh? What’s your point, 50? This track is alright, nothing special.

As soon as the beat for “Peep Show” drops I begin asking myself “Where’s Busta at?”. I really don‘t like 50 on this track and the lyrics are lazy as all hell. It sounds like a wannabe single and that turns me off immediately. As does the Nicole Scherzinger featured “Fire” which sounds like it could’ve been on the upcoming Britney Spears album. The chorus makes no fuckin’ sense. Why would you put drug talk anywhere in this song? Now I’m just pissed off. Uh Oh...what’s this? “All Of Me” feturing Mary J. Blige is what the fuck I’m talking about! Whooo! That beat is bananas and you know Mary is gonna bring it vocally. 50 stays in his lane and this joint and “Movin’ On Up” are definitely the stars of the album so far.

The beat for “Curtis 187” knocks but 50 bores the fuck outta me on this track. It’s typical 50 fare. It ain’t wack but I won’t be reciting any of these lines later. “Touch The Sky” sounds like an outtake from “The Massacre” (that’s NOT a good thing). Whoever let Tony Yayo spit on this track fucked up royally. I don’t care about this track at all.

In conclusion, this album will sell a shitload of copies and it has a shitload of potential singles. I will hear this album everywhere all Fall and perhaps Winter long. I can’t remember one quotable line from this album and if I did rewind a track, it was scrictly for the beat alone. This album has too many lame attempts at singles to get anything but a maybe from me although I will say that I expected this album to be way worse it’s actually a lot better than I thought it would be.





I’ve been waiting to hear this album for a long ass time and at long last here it is, Kanye West’s “Graduation”. The version I have has 16 tracks and opens with the Lil’ Wayne guested “Barry Bonds”. While Kanye West spits fire over this Nottz beat while Lil’ Wayne just spits a typical verse. Nice track. It’s followed by “Big Brother”, Kanye’s dedication to Jay-Z over a perfect beat for a story track. Next joint up is the “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’ Remix” featuring Young Jeezy, I loved the original version of this track and this one is dope as well. It leads right into the far too short “Champion” which could’ve gone for another good minute in my opinion. Kanye spits verses about his father and being a role model and “drop gyms (gems) like I dropped out of P.E.”. “Drunk And Hot Girls” featuring Mos Def in his role as the Boogieman going “Oh Oh Oh Da Da Da!” in the background is the type of track that would turn off a 50 Cent fan. The average hood cat would fast forward this with the quickness (I, of course, liked it).

“Everything I Am” is enhanced by the DJ Premier cuts on the hook and features dope introspective lyrics complete with some nice punchlines. If you looked up “album track” in the dictionary this track would be there. None of these tracks on these album so far could be categorized as “bangers” but so far I’ve heard quite a few joints that I’d call “my jam”. I’m actually listening to each track intently because it’s good music. “Flashing Lights” features Dwele on vocals and it’s yet another one of those laid back driving songs that might get a rewind because it’s so fly. “The Glory” means that I have to rewind this track, too. So far “The Glory” is the “hardest” beat on the album (with strings) and Kanye’s killing it lyrically once again. Kanye’s lines about him rockin' a speedo and still comin’ off like a fuckin' hero are emblematic of his style. He KNOWS he’s killin’ it. This joint is bananas. Next up is the first song I’ve heard T Pain on that I’ve ever liked. Kanye slides that part from Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T.” right into the beat and it’s another head nodder. We’re only halfway through the album, too.

“Good Morning” is yet another fly track that keeps the album on track. Next up is the Chris Martin featured “Homecoming” which I would like a lot more if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s just an inferior version of one of my favorite unreleased Kanye joints “Home” featuring John Legend. I like the original better. It’s just okay. “I Wonder” is another ridiculous jam, this beat takes the crown of hardest beat on the album from “The Glory”. Kanye doesn’t try to overdo it lyrically on this track preferring to let the beat rock for most of the song. Wise choice. “Stronger” is annoying and I think it could’ve been a lot better. When I originally heard it on the “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’” mixtape I thought it was a mixtape track like “Young Folks” was. I never thought this joint would make the album. It wasn’t until my brother told me that the “Stronger” video premiered on MTV that I found out it was a single. The original track “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” is bananas and this joint doesn’t do it justice.

The next track is the lead single “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’” which I loved from the first time I ever heard it. This joint’s hook damn near tell the story of my life... you can’t tell me nothin’. I know I could tear shit up if given the opportunity and wait till I get my money right and put myself in postion to make moves. Fuck the Dipset, THIS is powerful music. Last up are the bonus tracks, the John Mayer collaboration “Bittersweet Poetry” and the CRS joint “Us Placers” (called CRS on this album although it’s actual name was on the “Can’t Tell Me Nothin’ Mixtape”. Both of these joints are crazy and it’s time for the verdict: This album gets a mos def. Cop this shit when it drops on the 11th and listen to some good music for a change.





I decided to review an album from another young lady based in the UK to balance out this post. The artist is named Candie Payne and the album is called “I Wish I Could Have Loved You More”. If you love Portishead or James Bond theme music this the fuckin’ album for you. The title track “I Wish I Could Have Loved You More” is nuts. The very next track “Why Should I Settle For You” is some laid back niceness that’s reminiscent of Beth Gibbons vocal style. “Take Me” sounds like classic 60’s style production (thank you Mark Ronson). “In The Morning” and “All I Need To Hear” both sound like those old school 45’s people sample from nowadays. “A Different You” starts out like one of those classic Phil Spector productions and has you waiting for the Wall Of Sound to come in at any moment. It’s still a fly song.

“By Tomorrow” sounds like an uptempo joint from the Mersey Sound era of the mid 60’s and “One More Chance” sounds like a Quincy Jones arrangement he would’ve made for Leslie Gore mixed with Phil Spector’s production (that’s a good thing). “Hey Goodbye” and “Season Change” (which was about 2 minutes too short) are back to back heat rocks. This album is fire so far. It closes with “Turn Back Now” which reminds me of some old school Lulu material (once again, that's a good thing). Dayum!

This album is only 11 tracks long and it’s pretty short since the songs all average just under 3 minutes long (around the length they were in the 60’s). While Amy Winehouse’s last album did an excellent job of recreating the 60’s girl group sound, this album utilized a lot more of the different styles of chilled out 60’s production and sound that people still look to emulate today. I was taken by surprise by this LP as she’s had no hype or press in the US of any type. If you miss the Portishead style sound, excellent production and are a fan of 60’s music than you most def need this in your life. Cop it from the UK iTunes store, look for Candie Payne’s videos on YouTube or just look for her album here .



“I’ll be back but for now just sekkle!” © KRS One

One.

Even More Slept On Comic Book Titles AKA Yet Another Poisonous Paragraphs Special Comic Book Nerd Edition

I told y’all I was gonna come back and bless you with another on of these! Anyways, lets begin:

Dreadstar
Epic Comics was a writer based comic book imprint started by Marvel Comics legend Jim Shooter. The crown jewels of the Epic Comics line were the Heavy Metal Magazine inspired Epic Illustrated and the comic title Dreadstar. Jim Starlin wrote and penciled the adventures of Vanth Dreadstar, the last survivor of the Milky Way Galaxy and his exploits in space as he and his group of ragtag rebels ran afoul of the evil known as The Church Of Instrumentality. I didn't fully understand what the hell I was reading when I got my hands on these books as a kid but when I read them as a teenager I realized how ill they were. If you can find old issues of this title for cheap then don't hesitate to cop 'em.

Sgt. Rock
Sgt. Rock, the grizzled war veteran and leader of Easy Company was one of DC Comics most beloved characters of the 60's and 70's. He was featured in one of the most popular war comic books of all times and every time the country was at war it seemed that good ol' Sgt. Rock could be counted on to do another tour of duty. The Sgt. Rock comic book began it's modern run in the late 70's and spawned action figures and graphic novels. Sgt. Rock is often cited as the cheif inspiration for the rise of the G.I. Joe toys, comic book and cartoon series. Even to this very day, film producer Joel Silver own the rights to this property and is hell bent on bringing it to the silver screen. He's pissed that G.I. Joe will beat him to it as well.

Deathlok
Deathlok was a futuristic killing machine that traveled back to our time from the future (sound familiar) in order to stop it's creator from taking over the world. The series was originally created by Rich Buckler and Doug Moench back in the mid 70's and Deathlok became one of Marvel's most popular recurring characters. The reason I picked the cover above was because this is from the third (or second based on who you ask) incarnation of Deathlok from the early 90's in which a Black scientist who happens to be a pacifist has become trapped in the body of the ultimate killing machine and he seeks out his original body. Great book if you've never read it.

Marvel Team-Up
This popular title had Spider Man teamed with different heroes and sometimes villians to do battle with a wide array of supervillians. This title had a rotating team of Marvel's best writers and their best young pencilers and inkers on staff. Some of the best stories Marvel ever wrote were in the pages of this long running series.

Marvel Two-In-One
The Thing was teamed with different heroes that he normally wouldn't encounter and they managed to end up fighting some supervillians and kicking their asses. The series was written by a bunch of different heads and this title was one of the more popular titles of the late 70's to mid 80's. Of course nowadays anyone barely remembers it.

Champions (Of Los Angeles)
Tony Isabella and John Byrne concocted a superhero team founded by former X-Men Angel (who funded the group with his deep ass pockets) and Ice Man. They also added super jumpoff Black Widow (who served as team leader), Hercules and Ghost Rider to their ranks (as well as a few other low level heroes) and fought supervillians based out of Los Angeles. This title was doomed from the beginning and it didn't even last two years. I still remember it like it was yesterday, though.

Justice
Jim Shooter's failed writer based imprint New Universe birthed a shitload of forgettable titles and characters, one of the most intriguing being John Tensen or Justice. He had the power to read a person's aura and determine if they were good or evil or not. Once he found out, he would pass "judgement" on them (usually in the form of extermination). He could project shields made of energy with his left hand and an energy blast he referred to as this "sword" with his right hand. This title had a plethora of different artists and writers for the first 15 issues and didn't hit it stride until the 16th issue when it got a regular writer. The series (and the entireity of the New Universe) was halted after 32 issues and subsequently forgotten about although John Tensen still exists in today's Marvel Universe.


Cloak & Dagger
Bill Mantlo and Rick Leonardi handled the job of giving two of Marvel Comics most beloved characters their own title. Cloak & Dagger were both altered humans that had a co-dependent relationship and an on/off romance. Cloak was a Black man from the mean streets of Boston with a cloak that served as a portal to a world made of complete darkness and Dagger had the power to generate light and hurl them at opponents in the form of light daggers. Cloak used to feed on Dagger's light as it kept him from feeding on the souls of random people. There were several incarnations of this title and Cloak & Dagger are still kicking around in the Marvel Universe to this day.

Machine Man
Jack Kirby originally created the Machine Man character and Marv Wolfman and Steve Ditko took over for the title’s initial run. X-51 was a military robot first introduced in Marvel’s comic book adaptation of 2001: A Space Oddysey and once his creator died he gained sentience, rebelled against the military and became a fugitive. This series ended after only 19 issues but was brought back for a second series a year later. The Machine Man titles have been all but forgotten about in recent years leaving us old heads to write blogs about 'em.

Star Wars
Howard Chaykin did the pencils and inking on the early run of this comic book based on the popular film series. Eventually, the book went off on it's on tangent even introducing aliens that didn't originally appear in the Star Wars universe. This series was extremely popular during it's run even though it's storylines didn't follow the Star Wars canon. The Marvel comic books have been all but forgotten about since it's run ended.

Vigilante
Marv Wolfman, Paul Kupperberg & Alan Moore did the writing for this series about Adrian Chase. The district attorney by day, super secret operative by night character that worked in association with a secret organization to take down crazies and super villians. The issue ran for a long time until the character of Adrian Chase was killed off and the organization he worked for was given it's own book.


Checkmate
This book was created by Paul Kupperberg, Jon Byrne & Steve Erwin. Al Vey inked the series and it told the story of the operatives of the covert ops squad that served as DC's answer to S.H.I.E.L.D. and it's inner workings after the death of it's former key operative Vigilante. The main characters were Knight One and Black Thorn and the book only lasted to issue #33 before it was retooled and brought back years later.

Teen Titans anti drug comic book
Keebler Corporation in association with DC Comics put together this unforgettable anti drug comic book back in 1986. Marv Wolfman wrote it and George Perez did the ink and pencils in what became one of the most graphic Teen Titan tales ever written. Since another company had the licensing rights to Robin the writers were hamstrung and couldn't use him..they instead created a generic hero called The Protector (The DC honcos decided to use him in the DC Universe to cover up the fact that Keebler was blocked from using Robin). The Teen Titans title had a pretty adult slant to it already and this issue was FAR from corny. People died of overdoses and Speedy himself admitted to being a junkie to some kid high on goofballs so he would come down. I learned about drugs that I didn't even know existed from that book. After they handed it out in school, kids on the bus ride home read it and were like "What's a quaalude?" and "How do you pronounce this word here?" "It's spelled H-A-S-H-I-S-H". Good times.


Spider Man & Power Pack child molestation/abuse prevention comic book
Spider-Man and Power-Pack was a giveaway comic produced in 1984 by Marvel, the National Committee For Prevention of Child Abuse, and the NEA. As in the case of the Teen Titans comic book, it was distributed in schools, Boys & Girls' Club locations and community centers to educate children about child and sexual abuse. The Spider-Man story involves Spidey keeping some kid from being Michael Jacksoned and it was written by Jim Salicrup and penciled by Jim Mooney. The second story has Power Pack finding out that a friend of theirs is getting molested by her father and they pretty much just tell her to call the police and get counseling...nothing their superpowers could do in that situation. This issue was creepy as hell and a bit on the corny side. Plus it was mad short, nowadays it's a collector's item and there is a regular title called Spider Man & Power Pack...weird.

I'll be back with more later on. One.