] type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon'/>

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Power Record 45" - 1975

sgOne of my favorite, most beloved items--a 45" record featuring Aquaman and Flash stories from the good folks at Power Records!

I absolutely loved those Power Records, and spent many an afternoon sitting by my parent's record player (that was the size of a small car), reading comics listening to these dynamic audio adventures. They were exciting, fun, and look at that cover art--Neal Adams! Over the years, I've managed to find them all again and even ones I didn't have (they did a Shazam! one? really?), and I play them every so often when I'm a particularly retro mood.

The Aquaman story in question, "The Defeat of the Dehydrator" concerns a race of aliens stealing Earth's water, because all theirs has dried up (or something like that). Aquaman, with the help of Mera, stops them of course. But it ends really grimly, where one of the head aliens yells "Aquaman! You have defeated us! I have failed my people! And now they are truly doooomed!"

Aquaman and Mera, clearly not caring about the billions of people soon to die a slow, lingering death due to thirst, congratulate each other on a job well done! The last thing you hear is the sound of lapping water, clearly a last kick in the pants to the soon-to-be-dead alien water thieves.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved these things, too. I've got a kind of interesting story to tell about them, too. When I lived in Japan I hit upon the idea to transcribe these stories and use the script to create some comics. That way my students studying English could see what was going on while listening to the words. However, due to the grim nature of this story and to the odd nature of the Flash story, I ended up giving up on the idea. The only one I ended up with was a pencil sketched version of the JLA singing their "Justice League Song" from the LP. (sigh)

Dixon said...

Oh, snap! Look at this baby! There's nothing that excites me more than seeing the scarlet speedster and the king of the seven seas side-by-side. I'll have to seek out some of these records myself, then find a way to put them on the ol' iPod. (I've recently had entirely too much fun listening to MP3s of the 1966 Children's Treasury of Superman Musical Stories.)

rob! said...

dixon-

i think there's a blog somewhere that has these PR stories in MP3 form! i couldnt find it on my first try on google but i know its out there!

Dixon said...

And while you were posting this helpful comment, Rob, I was actually seeking out that link... And I've found it! I'll be posting a link to both this entry and the downloadable album at Crimson Lightning in a flash. Thank you, Rob!

rob! said...

russell-

that is waaay cool. too bad the stories were, as you, say, odd. Flash takes on some weird overgrown child with a weird creepy voice.