Hello!

Last week’s review of Marooned prompted contributor / advisor “B” to send along a sample of MAD Magazine’s October 1970 takeoff on the movie, “Moroned,” by the great Mort Drucker and Dick De Bartolo.

I stopped reading Mad a couple of years before, so I never saw this … and it’s really something. It touches on the same issues a good review would address. The caricature of James Franciscus is just okay, but the likenesses of David Jannsen (‘Dewerdye’) and Gene Hackman (Buzzoff) are truly good, really funny.

If you want to see more, drop me an email. It’s a sneaky trick to meet some readers, and I promise not to collect emails or anything.

Meanwhile, colleague and friend Bill Shaffer wrote from Topeka Kansas to report on an upcoming Godzilla & Friends weekend film festival, that he’s held for local kids at Washburn University for the last (gasp) 15 years. It’s in conjunction with the Kansas Silent Film Festival that he helps organize as well. I was invited twelve years ago to do a little presentation, and was greatly impressed with Bill’s young audience — value-wise, Topeka raises little kids that remind me of my own childhood. I clued Bill into the Godzilla experts Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski that year, and the wowed the kids with their special presentations.

It may not be IMAX but it’s a fun weekend for the Kaiju-deprived, a Friday evening and all day Saturday. Every year the film studios send Bill heaps of Godzilla-related swag to give out as door prizes. The little film fans respond as if they’d landed in Ali Baba’s cave.

I’m posting this announcement just in case someone halfway local to Topeka wants to check it out. Bill finally has to call it quits so this 15th installment will be the last. The dates are May 6th and 7th. Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski are flying in again. Bill will be showing 1968’s King Kong Escapes, which I remember taking my little brother to when it was new. It’s also a celebrity event: the movie’s star Linda Miller is scheduled to join in for a Zoom chat.

If nothing else, I’ll post some photos of the festivities later on. Where was Godzilla & Friends when I was seven years old?

Here’s a link to the info. Book your airfare now for beautiful downtown Topeka: Godzilla & Friends Festival #15.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson