Sunday, December 21, 2014

All I Want For Christmas Are This Comic Book And The Movie It Is Based Upon

So, I'm reading a comic I glommed from The Quarter Bin--Red Circle's Sorcery #7 (1974)--and I come across this ad:

Sweet Mariah Carey, I MUST find this book.

Did it ever actually exist?

Oh, yeah:

OK, that cover makes it look like the best comic ever!! (Cover by Gray Morrow!)

The stories in this issue? Crime Is Out Of Fashion, Bedlam Beat, Next Stop...The Cemetery, and 2 To Get Ready, 4 To Go.

Great Bird Of the Galaxy--I NEED this comic!!

Wait a minute--why are they wearing Batman-symbols? Where the hell are the DC lawyers?!?

Well, you see, the one and only issue of The Super Cops is based on a movie which depicts...

WAIT A MINUTE--there was a movie?!?!

Oh, hell yes:


Sweet mama jamma!!!

Allow me to crib from the plot description on Amazon.com:
Better cool your jets, all you Bed-Stuy dealers, operators and lowlifes: the heat that will take you down is on the street. The Super Cops zippily chronicles the crime-busting adventures of David Greenberg and Robert Hantz, the unorthodox police duo "who became known, not always fondly, as Batman and Robin," writes Vincent Canby in his review in The New York Times. "The nicknames define the comic-book style of the film," Canby adds, a film directed by renowned Life photojournalist and Shaft filmmaker Gordon Parks and amped by enthusiastic performances from leads Ron Leibman and David Selby. The real-life Greenberg and Hantz appear in the film in news footage and in bit roles.
Wait--Amazon?? So this movie is available on DVD??

Hell, yes!! Too cool story: It turns out that Edgar Wright wanted a copy for to use as a reference for Hot Fuzz, and Warner obliged by making it available as an on-demand title.

Plus, the fact that it was a Warner Joint explains how the flick could get away with all of the "Batman & Robin" references (which the press really did use in real life...). Still, I'm surprised that Archie Comics was able to get away with the Bat logos. Then again, maybe they didn't, and that's why the comic went away after one issue...

And a year later, the story was made into an TV pilot, which didn't sell.

So, there is a comic and a DVD of The Super Cops, and I don't have them.

Ahem...Oh, Santa...?

3 comments:

Siskoid said...

Hm, I think I'm on board too!

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

This is a great film, particularly if you enjoy the early 70s NYC cop films. I have this DVRd from ca few weeks back, it still appears on cable when they are trying to fill in a 3AM slot.

Buy it. Watch it. BE IT!

Britt Reid said...

Turner Classic Movies runs it uncut in their late-nite Friday/Saturday slot a couple of times a year.
There was also a non-fiction book with a poor pop-art "comic book" cover...The Super Cops: The True Story Of The Cops Called Batman and Robin by L.H. Whittemore
http://a1.img.bidorbuy.co.za/image/upload/user_images/107/1564107/1564107_120316171633_SUPERC_1.JPG