#jane webb

I have not giggled as much over any book this year as much as I giggled over The Mummy! What an absolute delight of a book and not at all what I expected. It felt really fresh, in a way that many classics don’t. It’s far more satirical of society and far less about the mummy that one would think, and it’s both topsy-turvy and fabulously inventive and utterly ridiculous, and I’m so glad I read it even if it was supposed to come in for me in October but the library lost its copy for a month.

Some of the other selling points include:

multiple women with agency

a love polygon that would suit a soap opera

a hereditary elected queenship

gas-jet headdresses and asbestos court dress

the most misogynistic characters roundly portrayed as fools

retracting steam-propulsion bridges

wind-up automaton lawyers

a mysteriously absent father ruining one woman’s prospects

a mummy who is more politically astute than the rest of the cast combined

the character names of Lord Noodle and Lord Doodle

the incredibly pedantic and verbose butler

the most unintentionally gay character intro ever

devastating balloon collisions

mobile homes

deliciously gothic moments (entering the pyramid, escaping from jail, dramatic reveals, etc.)

cross-dressing

being, of all things, anti-corset

Catwoman in The Batman/Superman Hour (1968)

The live action Batman television show was such a hit in the late 1960s that DC added the Dynamic Duo to their existing Superman cartoon, turning it into The Batman/Superman Hour. Catwoman came along as well, voiced by Jane Webb, in a new green costume that matched her recent look in the comics. This Catwoman had a variety of nefarious plans, and then backup plans after her original schemes fell through; everything had layers of difficulty for Batman and Robin, making Catwoman one of their most difficult foes.

I know I have been delinquent in my book reviews, but I promise I AM reading. So much reading. In fact, this past week was the most crowded publishing day the industry has seen in a long time. So while I work my way through the literal piles of books to review, here’s a few new and upcoming titles to check out this month. The Unwritten Book by Samantha Hunt I’ve started (but haven’t yet…

They live in Horrible Hall, which sits on Horrible Drive.  The inspiration for them were the classic, Universal monsters of the 1930s and 1940s I so adore.  How can I not love the…

The Groovie Goolies is an animated series that enjoyed its original run on CBS from 1970 to 1972.  The series was produced by FilmationAssociates, which was founded in 1963 and which produced both live-action and…