Tag Archives: 1994

Throwback Thursday: the fabled rotating comic stand!

Yep.  When I was in kid on Long Island, it would be either war comics (especially Sgt. Rock), Conan the Barbarian (or his himbo spiritual cousin, Ka-Zar the Savage) any of the various Archie titles, or a horror comic.  (I thought superhero comics were stupid when I was a kid.  In order for a comic to entertain me, it had to include war, swords, Archie or monsters).

When I was in the fifth or sixth grade, my dad would occasionally  pick me up titles that only seemed available in Manhattan, where he worked as a bus driver — books like the 1980’s iteration of the Blackhawk Allied commandoes or (joy and rapture) The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones.  (Maybe Indy’s title adhered more loosely to the rule of thumb I cited above, but that was forgivable, because it was the greatest comic book ever created.)

The last time I saw a rotating rack like this was … 1993?  1994?   For a while, it was neat little fixture of the 7-11 along Route 1 just outside Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  You could make a run for coffee or nachos at any hour and snag a comic while you were at it.  By then, I was thoroughly entrenched in the DC and Marvel superhero pantheons.  (A really cool goth kid in my freshman dorm had shown me Frank Miller’s work, and I was hooked.)



Throwback Thursday: “The Return of the Living Dead” (1985)!

One of my tragic flaws is that I am consistently late to the party when it comes to cool stuff.  (Seriously.)  So I never saw “Return of the Living Dead” (1985) in the 80’s.  I saw it around … 1993 or 1994, I guess,  on VHS tape in the Mary Washington College dorm room of Rhett Carlson and Nickolai Butkevich.

I truly enjoyed it, which is unusual for a horror-comedy.  (Movies can either scare me or make me laugh, but they can rarely do both.)  Yes, I am one of the people out there who finds “Return of the Living Dead” genuinely creepy.  C’mon … it’s got decent makeup effects — and both the “Tarman” zombie and the slab woman, for example, are pretty well executed monsters.

Hey … there’s a remake due out this Christmas.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see if it’s any good.



Cover to “Silver Surfer” #92, Ron Lim, 1994

Marvel Comics.

Photo of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn by Mikhail Evstafiev, 1994

Russian writer and Nobel prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn looks out from a train, in Vladivostok, summer 1994, before departing on a journey across Russia.  Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after nearly 20 years in exile.



“The Secret,” Hanno Karlhuber, 1994

Oil/tempera on hardboard.

(Nerd Nolan’s 1990’s Nostalgia Nod.)

Donald Sutherland passed away today at the age of 88.

You can read Kiefer Sutherland’s tribute to his father right here at People magazine.

If you’re a nerd like me, then you remember the priceless actor from roles in movies like “Murder By Decree” (1979) and “The Puppet Masters” (1994).  But nothing can beat his memorable turn in 1978’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

Rest in peace, thespian.



Photo credit: https://people.com/kiefer-sutherland-mourns-father-donald-sutherland-after-his-death-8666601

Poster for “Clear and Present Danger” (1994)

Paramount Pictures.ccc

Throwback Thursday: Spring Break 1994!

This was taken at North Carolina’s Outer Banks in 1994.  Pictured at right is the indomitable, inimitable, irreplaceable Dave Kline, of Mary Washington College fame.  (Yes, his fashion sense was legendary.)

Who is the goofy guy at left?  I have no idea.

Anyway, what a trip that was.  I’m sure I’m not the only one of my dormmates who remembers it fondly.



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Throwback Thursday: U2’s “Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World” (1991)

I love this song.  This was the ninth track from U2’s landmark 1991 album, “Achtung Baby.”  I remember listening to this song while munching on Butterfingers candy bars, cramming nervously for psych exams in my dorm room during the 1993/94 school year at Mary Washington College.

By psych exams, I mean tests in my psychology classes — not tests administered to me by a psychiatric professional.  But, hey, maybe they should have given me the latter.  It might have saved everyone a lot of time.