129: The Dianoga’s Tentacles of Doom!
early–mid 1978? | 9–10 years old Starring…Kevin Bacon! What the hell’s going on with this movie? A different actor per character in every panel? Well, I suppose being strangled by the Dianoga’s tentacles was was good preparation for his role in Tremors.
Art Notes: Abstract Expressionism
“Colour it—colour it…”
“Where?”
“ANYWHERE!!!”
I do like that first panel—not bad for a 9 or 10 year old. But check out that hastily scribbled Chewbacca in panel 2. It almost looks as if Jackson Pollock stepped in for a few seconds as guest artist. “Hey Jackson, that’s a pretty messy lloking Chewbacca.” “Uh… Chew-what? I call this one ‘Autumn Scribble’.” Can you even discern Luke and Chewie from all the junk? Chewbacca’s arm is bonkers! Which arm? He only seems to have one. The upper arm is really long. This one is crying out for Special Edition treatment, if only so we can disentangle the scribbles—so here it is!
Film Notes: Junk
According to my earliest source of information – the collectible « chewing/bubble-gum cards of ’78: the junk in the compactor mostly came from a nearby RAF base. Can anyone confirm this? I seem to remember that. Apart from the nuggets of behind the scenes info in the weekly comic the other source was the backs of some of the cards. Because Marvel’s souvenir collector’s edition was basically unaffordable, you could instead get exciting making of nuggets in easy-pay installments via the chewing gum cards. I can’t remember what they cost – it was a long time ago. I’m guessing that if you had 5p you could probably nip into the shop coming home from school and get yourself some high excitement.
“Wonder what cards we’ll get this time John (S)?
Will we get all of the ones with the Chewie jigsaw on the back?
—or will we find out how they made the ships fly?”
Hmm…wax paper – the smell of that pink gum! You can read a fuller account of these lovely childhood experiences « here. I almost tear-up thinking about it.
Discussion ¬