Rayboy's Year End Recap!

It is the final day of calendar year 2009, so let's take a brief look back at just a few of the momentous events, losses and highlights that we experienced here in the Catacombs.

One of the sad facts of life is that it eventually comes to an end. This year the world of comics lost legendary artists Frank Springer (age 79), Ric Estrada (age 81), George Tuska (age 93), Irving Tripp (age 88), Frank Borth (age 91) and Dave Simons (age 54). Hollywood celebrities that passed away include Patrick McGoohan (80), Ricardo Montalban (88), Lost in Space robot Bob May (69), David Carradine (72), Shek Kin (96), Farrah Fawcett (62), Marilyn Chambers (56), Edward Woodward (79), Gene Barry (90), Dan O’Bannon (63), Brittany Murphy (32), Dr. No Joseph Wiseman (91), Tarzan's Jane Brenda Joyce (92) and Swamp Thing actor Dick Durock (72).

Genre fans lost a few extras this year when the brilliantly re-imagined Syfy channel version of Battlestar: Galactica ended its four season run on television. The long-running print edition of Starlog magazine left newsstands and went online only this year. Here in the Catacombs, I completed my "1970’s Flashback’s" and rolled over that frequent feature into 1980's coverage and for the sake of argument, Disney bought Marvel Comics, which didn't really look like its old self anyway, and who knows what this corporate merger will bring forth down the road?

Moviegoers got some terrific genre fare this year, and in some ways it truly was a banner year for big-budget effects extravaganzas like Avatar, 2012, Paranormal Activity, Zombieland, 9, Knowing, Watchmen, Star Trek and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I know that some of these may not have been to everyone's taste, and that there are major omissions from this list. I enjoyed most of the films listed here, and comics movies that aren't here simply didn't pull me into the theater.

I am very grateful to those comic book creators who agreed to my profile/interview requests this year, even more of these profiles are coming at you in 2010, but let's thank the following fine folks who visited the Catacombs in 2009: Axel Medellin, Michael T. Gilbert, Danielle Corsetto, Guy Davis, Philip Dean Gray, Rachel Freire and James Ritchey.

I am very appreciative of Don "Zu-Gogo" Falkos for providing me with the fruits of his golden age jungle comics stories. These scans allow all of us the opportunity to read stuff that may otherwise never be seen, unless you have serious disposable income to purchase the originals off of eBay or some hoity-poloity auction house.

Thanks also to my regular followers and those anonymous readers who only stop by occasionally. I do appreciate your patronage and hope to continue to amuse you for some time to come.

Happy New Year!