Several years ago, I was leading an art critique.  As the students placed their work on the board, we went through each one, and I invited the other students to weigh in with their opinions.  One student’s statement immediately struck me for its simplicity, clarity, and truth.  In appraising another’s work, he said: “It makes me want to draw.”   When I really enjoy someone’s art, it inspires me to pick up a pencil and create.  It’s like someone captured your muse on a page.  Until this week, I carried that statement with me as the highest praise an artist can make about another artist’s work.  Then I saw this image by cartoonist, Evan “Doc” Shaner, on his blog:

Whatever Evan Shaner saw in my strip, it moved him enough to not only draw, but he drew one of my characters!   No one’s ever done that for me before, mostly because I never really created anything for the public before.  It just absolutely floored me, because Shaner not only drew it, but he drew the HELL out of it.  I love Pastor’s expression, the brilliant composition, the use of the single, flat yellow that is synonymous with the site, and the small, white accents to pop the objects that had a shine to them.  As is evident in the image above, Shaner is an avid student of classic illustrators like Alex Toth, Jack Cole, and their spiritual descendants like Darwyn Cooke and Jeff Parker**, so for him to find merit in my work really meant a lot.

- JEP

**Jeff Parker’s not just a great writer.  Parker illustrated his self-published graphic novel, Interman, which had one of the best surprise endings I’ve read in years.

Just in time for the holidays, I thought I’d talk about a little Christmas-themed Blaxploitation.

Long before WORLD OF HURT came along, David Walker was keeping the Blaxploitation flame alive with his Blaxploitation-centric magazine BadAzz Mofo.  David is a tremendously talented writer with a wicked sense of humor.  Although BadAzz Mofo is no longer being published, he now runs a website of the same name, which features reviews of new films, movies and DVD releases, and occasionally, he will post some of the content that was originally published in the magazine.  The often-hilarious Blaxploitation film reviews alone are enough to make Walker’s site a regular online destination.

I’ve had the pleasure of corresponding with David and his wonderfully sweet mother, Bonnie, and I’ve come to realize that David is apparently one of those restless creative souls, because in 2007, he also funded, wrote and directed the self-described “mini-epic” Black Santa’s Revenge.  The film stars Ken (The Devil’s Rejects) Foree as the titular hero who embarks on a bloody path of vengeance against a gang of crooks to recover a cache of stolen toys that were intended for impoverished kids.  Clocking in at about twenty minutes,the movie delivers exactly what you’d expect from a film called Black Santa’s Revenge, and a lot more.  Although little backstory is given for Ken Foree’s Black Santa, the veteran actor invests his character with a haunted quality.  Foree’s large physical presence and the thundering bass of his voice make him seem like a viable threat for any gang of crooks, but his sad, tired eyes suggest that there’s a lot more at stake than principle or a bunch of action figures and stuffed animals.  Black Santa is a guy who will go through Hell and back, and dish out a lot of pain,  to make sure that children don’t have to do without for the holidays.  Walker, who directed the film, obviously didn’t have a big budget, but he gets a lot of literal, and figurative, bang for his buck.  The action is well-staged, and Walker makes strong use of his night-time locations, from the seedy strip club where Black Santa spends his down time to the industrial hideout of the crooks.

In the interest of full disclosure, David contacted me earlier this year to collaborate on turning Black Santa’s Revenge into a longer feature.  Although external circumstances beyond the control of David or myself prevented that from becoming a reality at this time, in a way I’m glad, because the request posed such a difficult challenge.  The original featurette did a strong job of establishing everything you needed to know about Black Santa’s world, in such an effective and economical way, that I feared my meddling might undercut what Walker had done so well in this version.  David’s offering a digital download on BadAzzMofo.com, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the short trailer of Black Santa’s Revenge, above.

Have a safe, wonderful, and blessed Christmas, everyone!

- JEP

Clocking in at nearly 200 pages, Rachel Rage Vol. 1: Heartland is Blaxploitation-themed graphic novel from the mind and pen of John Aston.  Rachel Rage debuted as a webcomic by John Aston, the self-described head honcho over at OldeTowneComix.com, at which he posts Rachel Rage.  I had the pleasure of meeting John in 2009 at HeroesCon, and he’s a genuinely nice guy, but thankfully, John and I have staked out two separate areas within the Black action genre, otherwise there might very well be blood in the streets as we fight over Blaxploitation webcomic supremacy.  Whereas WORLD OF HURT follows a male hero in the tradition of the characters portrayed by Richard Roundtree, Fred Williamson, and Jim Brown, Rachel Rage works the other side of the Blaxploitation street and centers around a bad-ass, take-no-prisoners female protagonist cut from the same mold as Pam Grier’s Foxy Brown or Tamara Dobson’s Cleopatra Jones.

Set in the American South during the 1970s, Rachel Rage is a violent, blood-soaked, seedy tale of a young Black woman’s quest to avenge the death of her adoptive father at the hands of the corrupt, local sheriff, James Stewart.  Rachel Rage begins in medias res, with Rachel launching a one-woman assault on the sheriff’s drug supply chain.  Although she racks up a decent body count, Rachel’s initial attack against the sheriff quickly falls apart, and she is captured by Sheriff Stewart’s deputies.  While in his custody, Rachel is psychologically abused by the twisted sheriff, who has a habit of referring to our heroine by the sarcasm-laden, tender endearments like “sweet potato pie”  and “sugar dumpling.”  Coming from his perpetually sneering mouth, the phrases are delivered like wicked, cutting bromides against his captive. 

Despite the body count Rachel has left behind even before the story begins, and the damage she’s done to Sheriff Stewart’s drug running network, the lawless lawman has no intention of physically harming her…yet.  For reasons that I can’t go into without giving away the plot, Stewart merely wants to break Rachel’s spirit and bring her into his organization.  Recognizing that her first plan is now in tatters and  finding herself alternately bound, gagged, and/or hooded and at the mercy of the sheriff, Rachel agrees to go along with the Stewart’s scheme, but she will not be denied her revenge.

Aston creates a complex tale of intrigue, deceit and betrayal with Rachel Rage.  The language in Rachel Rage is absolutely brutal, and Aston does a strong job of capturing a sort of Tarantino-esque cadence for the characters.  (Physically, Sheriff Stewart strongly resembles the late David Carradine, so I found myself reading all his dialogue as the master assassin wrangler, Bill, of Tarantino’s two-part cinematic epic, Kill Bill.)  Aston emphasizes the film parallels by setting the action within panels bordered by a set of weathered curtains, to mirror the effect of sitting in a sticky-floored,  popcorn-strewn theater.  The panels have the muted, but lurid, coloring of an aging film stock, complete with scratches on the film.  However, despite his reverence for the cinematic experience, Aston also recognizes the possibilities inherent in the comic medium.   Aston works large and his big panels are chock-full of interesting details.  Aston’s technique of moving his virtual “camera” around various parts of the same panel to create mood and ratchet up the tension is one of the most effective uses of aspect-to-aspect panel transition that I’ve ever seen.   It establishes mood by lingering on a detail and effectively ratchets up the tension, as when the bound Rachel is slowly revealed to the reader over the course of several panels.  Also, I have to applaud Aston for the way he draws Rachel herself.  Rachel’s not a wasp-waisted waif.  She’s a wide-hipped, big-legged, Afro-puff-wearin’ daughter of the South.   Beneath her round, cherubic face, Rachel Rage is all butt, boobs and curves.  To use today’s vernacular, she’s thick, and ain’t a damn thing wrong with that.

Rachel Rage is filled with some of the seediest, most cruel characters this side of Eduardo Risso’s and Brian Azzarrello’s Vertigo series, 100 Bullets.  Finishing the book is the literary equivalent of staying in a strip club until the lights come on.  You had a good time while you were there, but in the harsh, unrelenting light, you suddenly realize that you don’t want to spend any more time with these people than you have to. ..but if your buddies gave you a call, you’d go back in a heartbeat.

Speaking of which, I might be that buddy who’s inviting you back to the club.  Word has it that John’s planning to release a new, shorter volume of Rachel Rage stories this year, so make sure you stop by the Olde Towne for a visit.

- JEP

Parker is a guy you wouldn’t ever want to meet, but if you’re a fan of crime fiction, he’s certainly someone you should know.  Donald Westlake, under the nom de plume Richard Stark, created Parker, a tough-as-nails, brutal, and singularly driven career criminal, who debuted in the 1962 novel, The Hunter. Before his death in 2008, Stark featured Parker as the protagonist in twenty-three subsequent novels.  I use the term “protagonist” quite intentionally, as there’s very little of the hero in Parker.  He’s a violent, cold  and cruel crook.  Parker is a self-made man who’s completely self-absorbed in the pursuit of his own agenda, regardless of the consequences to others or himself.  Nonetheless, you somehow you find yourself admiring Parker’s resourcefulness, determination, and his code (as much as he has one) that he just wants what’s coming to him – nothing more and nothing less.

There’s very little to like about Parker, but in Parker, Richard Stark created a compelling, durable character that has earned a legion of fans and inspired other creators to adapt or pay homage to Parker in their own works, including Jean Luc Goddard, who adapted the Parker novel, The Jugger, into the 1966 film, Made In The U.S.A. and Mel Gibson, who starred in Payback, a 1999 adaptation of The Hunter.  However, the most famous translation of a Parker novel into film was the 1967 John Boorman classic, Point Blank, which starred Lee Marvin as “Walker.”  Point Blank was notable for Boorman’s lean, experimental storytelling and Marvin’s career-best performance.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, the film Point Blank, in it’s location, mood and style, was also an inspiration for me when I was deciding on a name for Pastor’s hometown.  I’m a fairly recent convert to the work of Donald Westlake, so I eagerly sought out most of the works I referenced above.  However, there was one additional adaptation that I knew I had to find.  In 1968, MGM released The Split, an adaptation of Richard Stark’s novel, The Seventh.  The film starred a remarkable cast of past and future Oscar winners and nominees, including Diahann Carroll, Julie Harris, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Sutherland, James Whitmore, and Gene Hackman.  However, heading up this all-star ensemble in the ”Parker” role was a relatively new actor named Jim Brown.

The Split is about a felon named McClain, played by Jim Brown, who returns to his old stomping grounds in Los Angeles to make one more big score. Jim Brown still busts heads and kicks down doors like he did in his later films like Slaughter and Black Gunn, but the tough guy persona he adopts in The Split is somewhat more understated than what we would see from him in those films.  Brown’s approach toward McClain, the Parker character he portrays in the film, is appropriate for the time (which I will discuss shortly) and the character.  As a thief, it behooves McClain to be as unobtrusive as possible, and as much as a muscular, 6′4″ inch Black man can, Brown does a surprisingly good job of fading into his surroundings to not draw attention to himself or his activities.

When we first see McClain, his car’s just broken down in the desert.  Over the strains of a Quincy Jones score, we see McClain bumming rides and finally arrives by bus outside a cut-rate hotel owned by an old friend/accomplice named Gladys (Julie Harris).  Together, the two brainstorm ideas about McClain’s next score and ultimately decide to hit the box office of the upcoming playoff game between the New York Jets and the Los Angeles Rams.  With no advance ticket sales, and cash only at the gate, they expect to haul away nearly half a million dollars.  McClain buys a ticket to an earlier game and scopes out the security.  After McClain realizes that the plan is doable, it is agreed that Gladys will fund the operation, handle logistics and help assemble the crew.   There is a strong implication that the two might have been lovers in the past, especially when Glady’s demeanor abruptly changes after McClain inquires about the whereabouts of his ex-wife, Ellie, played by Diahann Carroll. I think that the chemistry Brown had with his two female co-stars was better than in any of his other films.  What I enjoyed about his early scenes with Harris was the easy familiarity and tenderness between Harris and Brown, as they drive around, eat Chinese food together and make their plans.  Given the time in which this film was shot, it was especially brave of Harris. Diahann Carroll was every bit the female version of Poitier.  Her diction and bearing exuded confidence and class, but you could easily see how her character could be attracted to a hulking, brooding mysterious guy like McClain.

After McClain and Ellie reunite, we are treated to scenes of McClain testing out the crew he needs for the job.  I don’t know if this modus operandi fits the literary Parker, but it’s fun to see Brown use his strength, cunning, skill, and intelligence to put the prospective criminals through their paces, particularly in a honey trap that he sets for James Whitmore’s Herb, an expert in security systems, which involves alcohol, a curvy prostitute, and a bank vault with a motion-sensitive electronic eye.  The other recruits are Ernest Borgnine as the muscle, Jack Klugman as the driver, and Donald Sutherland as a sniper, doing that cerebral, creepy thing that he excelled at in his youth.  Most of what follows in the film is the set-up for the heist, and its execution, which does not go off flawlessly, but it is successful.  The plan actually has some nice twists and surprises, especially with how McClain deploys Sutherland’s gun-for-hire to clear the way/clog the path for their getaway.

Unfortunately, the wheels come off after McClain stores the loot at Ellie’s apartment until the gang can meet later to split the proceeds.  While McClain is away, Ellie has a shocking run-in with her landlord that pits McClain’s crew of criminals against him to recover the stolen loot.  Eventually, McClain has to find unlikely assistance from the very law enforcement community that is searching for him, in the form of Lt. Det. Walter Brill, played by Gene Hackman.  McClain’s first meeting with Brill in the detective’s own bedroom is a clever bit of directing.  With a nervous, sweating Hackman backed into his closet, yelling out at the mysterious figure of Jim Brown, who is completely swathed in impenetrable shadows, I was reminded of the opening of The Professional, when Jean Reno’s Leon emerges from the darkness to slip a knife at the throat of the drug dealer.  McClain is able to leverage his suspicions about Brill to enlist him as an ally during the a climactic shootout with his former partners in crime.  In the end, in typical Parker fashion, McClain manages to get what’s coming to him -nothing more and nothing less.

The Split is rather hard to find on DVD.  The copy that I managed to find was released by Blax Films, and is about as barebones as you can get.  There are no extras -it doesn’t even feature a scene selection option- and the picture quality isn’t that great.  Nonetheless, if you have the opportunity to snag a copy, I would recommend that you do so.  It is a solid crime caper with a nice revenge story thrown into the mix.  It is also interesting from an art historical point of view.  In some ways, The Split is a proto-Blaxploitation flick that stands somewhere between the stoically proud Sidney Poitier vehicles of the 1960s like In The Heat Of The Night and the brash and boldly defiant Black cinema of the early 1970s.

- JEP

Welcome to the latest installment of a recurring feature on WORLDOFHURTONLINE.COM…

Sponsored by www.BMFWallets.com

The Unsung Badmotherf****** Award recognizes Outstanding Achievements In The Field of Badassery Deserving Wider Recognition.  The Unsung Badmother****** is the guy who made a splash and kicked some ass, but remains unappreciated, or largely unknown, by the masses.

The UBMF Award is named after the oft-quoted moment in the “Theme from Shaft” when Isaac Hayes is abruptly interrupted by his backup singers before he can fully extol the badass virtues of his man, Shaft.  If people remember nothing else about the movie “Shaft,” or Blaxploitation in general, they remember that line, and it immortalized Hayes and made John Shaft a cinematic icon.

In the annals of Blaxploitation heroes, characters like John Shaft, Foxy Brown and Youngblood “Super Fly” Priest loom large, however, Dan Freeman is the textbook example of one of Blaxploitation’s Unsung Bad Mother******s.  Dan Freeman is the lead character in the Ivan Dixon film, The Spook Who Sat By The Door.  The 1973 film was adapted from the novel of the same name by author, Sam Greenlee, who also served as a co-writer for the movie.  At some point, I’ll provide a full, and proper review of The Spook Who Sat By The Door, but I’ll just try to hit the most salient points below to give you a better idea about Dan Freeman.

What makes Dan Freeman such a bad motherfucker?  I say this without a hint of hyperbole:  Dan Freeman is Batman, Tyler Durden, and the best intentions of (and the worst fears about) The Black Panther Party combined into one of the most ingenious, and dangerous, characters to ever grace the silver screen.

The Spook Who Sat By The Door is the fictional story of Dan Freeman (played by Lawrence Cook), a college-educated Korean War veteran who becomes the first Black agent of the Central Intelligence Agency after a grandstanding senator launches a cynical call-to-arms for minority recruitment within the CIA.  The CIA also knows a good public relations stunt when they see it, so they go along with the senator’s plan.  In reality, the CIA expects no one to pass, or at best, they’ll just select one Black candidate to create the illusion of diversity among their ranks.  With his studious, quiet demeanor and surprising physical acumen, Dan Freeman emerges as the final candidate.  Despite surviving a rigorous training course that includes everything from counter-insurgency theory to demolitions and martial arts, after graduation, Freeman is shuffled off to the bowels of Langley, where at first he serves as their “top secret reproduction center section chief,” which was little more than a glorified copy boy.  Freeman is well aware that his presence within the CIA is little more than a token nod to affirmative action, but he patiently bides his time, learning, studying, and observing how the agency operates.  Finally, after five years, until he decides to leave the agency and return to his hometown of Chicago to become a social worker.

Freeman uses his position as a social worker to gather intelligence about the poor Black community he serves, including information about its criminal element.  Freeman lays a trap for the members of his old street gang, The Cobras, physically bests them and taunts them about their directionless, ineffective jabs at the authorities.  He uses The Cobras as his first foot soldiers and recruiters in his efforts to build a urban army that actually has a chance to force the U.S. government to accept the Black communities demands to be viewed as equals.  Freeman knows how his opponents operate, and despite one pivotal misstep, his plan is largely successful.  He funds his operation through a daring bank raid, successfully steals a cache of heavy weaponry from a National Guard armory, builds an ever-expanding network of operatives in several American cities, and subsequently uses this network to launch simultaneous guerrilla assaults against the authorities.  Like Grant Morrison’s Batman, Dan Freeman has plans built on top of contingencies to confound a much more powerful, and well-equipped, opponent.

“He’s one of them quiet kinda cats that people just don’t mess with…I know that if I got in trouble, he’d be in it. I think he be real bad once he got going, too.”

- Paula Kelley as the prostitute, “Dahomey Queen,” discussing Dan Freeman in The Spook Who Sat By The Door

Dan Freeman is the thinking man’s action hero, and actor Lawrence Cook, perfectly portrays him as such.  Dan’s style is to fade into the background, watch, listen, observe and then strike at the most opportune time, even if he has to endure some humiliation in the short-term to achieve his long-term goals.  Freeman’s confrontation with Calhoun, a CIA martial arts instructor who wants to run him out of the program, perfectly encapsulates this approach.  Freeman takes his lumps in the early moments of the fight before he figures out a way to counter, gain the upper hand, and ultimately choke out the bigoted instructor.  He also relies on a cultural tendency to ignore servants to have his army move virtually invisibly among his targets in order to gather intelligence.  We can find shades of this theme in modern works like the films Dirty Pretty Things (2003) and Fight Club (1999).  In the latter work by Chuck Palahniuk, Tyler Durden’s Project Mayhem strongly mirrors the structure and intent of Freeman’s underground army in The Spook Who Sat By The Door.

Lawrence Cook, with his square, blocky glasses, pronounced forehead and sleepy eyes, does a masterful job of capturing all the nuance and hidden fire of Dan Freeman.  Early in the movie, Freeman is invited by the other Black candidates to join them for a night on the town.  Dan politely begs off in a shy, bookish manner, but their discussion quickly reveals reveals that at least one of the candidates harbors long-simmering resentments toward Dan Freeman.  When the verbal confrontation threatens to become physical, Cook instantly, and seamlessly, shifts his demeanor from one of reserved detachment to quiet menace.  Also, to the credit of Greenlee, Dan Freeman is not a perfect man.  He not only frequents a prostitute, but it is implied that he is involved in an affair with his married former girlfriend.  He is not a bloodless warrior, but it is his intense passion which he harnesses and uses as fuel his quest for social justice. Cook’s voice rarely rises above its naturally hoarse, raspy whisper, but in those rare moments when Dan Freeman lets his mask slip, Cook uses it as a wonderful tool to pull the lid off the slow-boiling rage of a man who has made significant personal sacrifices, and swallowed no small amount of pain, to make his dreams a reality.  In this regard, Cook perfectly embodied the attitudes of millions of Black Americans, particularly successful middle-class Blacks, who had fought for every rung they climbed on the ladder of success.

What I find rather interesting about The Spook Who Sat By The Door, and what resonates even today, is that the character of Dan Freeman is basically the celluloid embodiment of every Fox News and TeaBagger theory about President Barack Obama.  Dan Freeman is an intellectually curious, accomplished, and outwardly passive college-educated Black man who spent time working as a community organizer in Chicago.  No matter how much crap is piled on him, he remains unflappable and strangely reserved, but secretly he is using his knowledge, and position of authority, to foment a well-organized and brilliantly executed insurrection against the  United States government itself.  Heck, at one point, the CIA speculates that the entire insurrection is the handiwork of a Communist infiltrator.  I’m certain that if Dan Freeman had used a teleprompter anywhere in the film, The Spook Who Sat By The Door would be on constant rotation on Hannity accompanied by a chiron that read “I’m Not Sayin’, I’m Just Sayin’.”

- JEP

FROM THE “TOO FUNKY FOR WORDS” FILES:

A literal representation of the “World Of Hurt” from the mind and pen of the multi-talented, and very funny, Brian McLachlan.

For those of you who may not know, Brian is part of Transmission-X, the highly acclaimed webcomic collective that, among others, includes artists Karl (The Abominable Christopher Charles) Kerschl and Cameron (Sin Titulo) Stewart.  Brian is the force behind the webcomic, The Princess Planet, a webcomic about the humorous exploits of the adventurous, bodysuit-clad Princess Christi and the the assortment of strange, goofy, and ridiculous inhabitants of her kingdom.  It’s a strip that boasts a gentle, all-ages humor filled with hilarious, and sometimes groan-worthy, sight gags and puns.  The clever wordplay and Brian’s great cartooning are signatures of The Princess Planet.  (For a great five-star review by one of my favorite webcomic reviewers, El Santo of Webcomic Overlook, go here.)

Brian McLachlan was one of the first professional artists to contact me after I started WORLD OF HURT.  He sent me a very kind and encouraging e-mail and told me of his own interest in Blaxploitation.  He also mentioned that he was working on his own Blaxploitation-themed series, or as he called it, a “retrosexual exploitation style graphic novel” that he was planning on rolling out soon.  After corresponding for a while, he sent me a digital version of the work-in-progress, a series called Smooth N’ Natural.  I think it took me a while to respond to him after that, because my jaw broke the keyboard on its way to the floor.

Smooth N’ Natural takes place in an alternate world “…where the funk still flows and love is still free.”  It follows the adventures of Luthor and Lucas Love, the sons of a the late Luscious Love, a legendary Lothario and ass-kicker.  To paraphrase The Temptations, “Papa Love was a rolling stone,” who REALLY got around, so the Brothers Love are half-brothers born on the same night from different mothers.  Lucas is the dark-skinned brother with the ‘Fro and facial hair of John Shaft.  Luthor is a fair-skinned, like Allan Willis from The Jefferson.  To use the vernacular, he could “pass.“  However, both men live up to their surname, because they inherited their late father’s sexual “mojo.”  They also inherited his desire for righteous, two-fisted adventure and justice.  Together, “the brothers from another mother” are kung-fu fightin’, head-busting trouble shooters.

The story takes place in an alternate world “…where the funk still flows and love is still free.”  In essence, it’s like those old DC Comics featuring Phantom Lady and The Freedom Fighters who lived on a parallel Earth where World War II never ended and 1940s fashion never went out of style.  In the case of Smooth ‘N Natural, the 1970s never ended.  McLachlan has a great eye for the fashion and aesthetic of the 1970s, from the clothes to the furnishings in the apartments of the two brothers.  However, he adds clever details, like a mobile phone with a rotary dial on its face, to reinforce the alternate world concept.  McLachlan takes full advantage of the change in format and subject matter from The Princess Planet.  Whereas The Princess Planet is an all-ages strip, McLachlan isn’t afraid to get a little racy and sexy in Smooth N’ Natural, with nudity and strong sexual situations, which is true to the spirit of the original Blaxploitation films.  However, in the words of the Brian McLachlan himself, Smooth N’ Natural not only uses the best elements of Blaxploitation but he also blends it with a bit of “…other elements like Andy Sidaris movies and even some Bond stuff.”  Also, the former strip contains mostly one-off strips or very short storylines, but in the material he sent me, Smooth N’ Natural seems to be built around much longer storylines, which are in the action-comedy vein.  In many ways, Smooth N’ Natural is the spiritual cousin to Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca’s Afrodisiac, which I also loved.

I thought Smooth N’ Natural was an absolute blast, and I think you will, too.  Fortunately, you’re in luck, because Brian is releasing Smooth N’ Natural as a webcomic.  He will officially debut it next month at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, but you can check it out now at www.smoothnnatural.com.  Be sure to check it out, bookmark it, and then spread the word.

- JEP

Today is the 68th birthday of Richard Roundtree, best known for his portrayal of John Shaft in Shaft, Shaft’s Big Score, and Shaft In Africa.  What more can be said?  If you’re dropping by here, you know the score.  With the character of John Shaft, Roundtree set a new standard for Black leading men:  Smooth, dangerous, and not inclined to take shit off anyone. 

- JEP

As I mentioned previously, C.E. Garcia, a professional musician who performed on the original motion picture soundtrack for Black Dynamite and now regularly tours as a member of The Black Dynamite Sound Orchestra, composed an original theme for WORLD OF HURT.  The song is now available on iTunes, but as I promised, you’d hear a sample of it right here at the home of The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic!

The Black Fist (Theme to WORLD OF HURT) {Sample}

Dude just KILLED it!  Those clanging church bells just sound like doom!  Ask not for whom the bell tolls.  It tolls for thee, muthafucka!  Also, my hat is off to the talented Alfredo E. Fratti and his magic flute.  I don’t have the musical vocabulary to express what he did, but never has a flute sounded so menacing.  It adds the perfect touch to a note-perfect song.

Now, please do Mr. Garcia and myself a favor and buy this bad boy from iTunes.  We got bills ta pay!   Just search for “The Black Fist” or “C.E. Garcia” and it should pop right up.

- JEP