Star Trek: To Starve A Fleaver

Track:

To Starve A Fleaver

 

Another of Power Records' dull as dishwater re-releases to tie in with Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Having worked in graphic design and dealt with licensed properties, I'm guessing that Peter Pan was sent a batch of stills from the movie by Paramount to use for the sleeves, so they could only do so much: almost all the images seen on these re-releases are boring as all get out. Not that ST:TMP had a whole lot of action scenes to pick from, but it seems like whoever was in charge really went out of their way to find as many "Crew of Enterprise standing around" shots as possible.

Six Million Dollar Man: 4 Exciting Christmas Adventures

 

Tracks:
Christmas Lights
Elves' Revolt
The Kris Kringle Caper
The Toymaker

How big was the Six Million Dollar Man as a property? Power Records gave him his own Christmas-themed LP, something not even Superman or Batman got!

I didn't have this as a kid, so I was hearing these stories for the first time when preparing this post. "Elves' Revolt" excepted, they're fairly straightforward action adventure stories, and I imagine they were fairly satisfying if you were a fan of the show. I do find it curious why the classic "na na na na na na" sound effect, the show's most lasting contribution to pop culture, is never used. Maybe it was considered copyrighted to the show only?

I can't quite place the art on the front sleeve, but I'll eat a Holo-Man 45" if the back cover isn't by longtime Batman artist Irv Novick. That portrait of Oscar Madison is a dead ringer for his work.

Batman LP Original Art

 

Here's Neal Adams' original art to the 1976 Batman LP featuring "Gorilla City" and "The Mystery of the Scarecrow Corpse." Nice coloring, though I don't get the idea behind that big white stripe down the center.

Star Trek: Passage to Moauv

Track:

Passage to Moauv

Power Records reissued most (all?) of their Star Trek audio adventures with new front and back covers to tie in with the 1979 movie. Some of them were pretty god awful ugly, but this one isn't too bad, if a bit generic. Could the story title be done in a less exciting manner?

Superman: The Man From Krypton

 Track:

The Man From Krypton

Spider-Man of course wasn't the only Power Records star whose adventures were re-purposed across multiple formats. Superman got the honor with "The Man From Krypton", featuring an all-new cover, which looks to me like re-drawn versions of work by Rich Buckler and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (PBHN).

This seems a little odd to me, because from what I understand JLGL didn't start producing the classic DC stock art until 1983 or so, and I thought Power Records had given up the ghost by then--or at the very least, had stopped issuing new releases of any kind. Yet here it is!

Six-Million Dollar Man: Elves' Revolt

Track:
Elves' Revolt

I was never that into the Six-Million Dollar Man as a kid, so I never fully grokked just how popular he was in his heyday. Case in point: not only did Power Records license the character for his own LPs, but he was picked to headline a Christmas-themed adventure, an honor not even granted to Spider-Man or the cast of Star Trek!

This adventure is pretty painfully silly, though I appreciate the voice actor playing Steve Austin trying to approximate Lee Majors' particular way of speaking. It helps if you think of this record as a prequel to The Night The Reindeer Died.

Power Records Multi-Packs

Another amazing Power Records discovery courtesy Power Pal Rockwell Jay Pugglesworth! In addition to the cassette twin-packs, Power Records also issued their audio adventures on hanger cards, with up to four(!) stories crammed onto one cassette.

The Star Trek ones are, like the movie they're plugging, pretty dull, but check out the Spider-Man and Wonder Woman packs seen on the back of the cards! Not only do they feature art heretofore unseen on any Power Record, but they feature some nifty die-cuts which really must have helped them pop off the stands. Not only that, but as you can see from the product list, the combos were real head-scratchers: Hulk and Superman? Captain American and Star Trek? You'll never see the likes of these again.

Great find Rockwell!

 

Superman Wonder Woman Batman - Exciting Christmas Stories

 

Tracks:
Light Up The Tree, Mr. President
Christmas Carol Caper
The Prisoner of Christmas Island

The only instance I can think of what we nowadays call a "variant", Power Records issued the same Christmas-themed LP featuring original stories starring Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman with two different covers, swapping the background color and changing the title treatment. I can only assume they were released different years...why they felt the need to change the cover art is a mystery probably lost to the ages.

I never even knew they did this at all until my POWER RECORDS PODCAST co-host Chris Franklin mentioned to me that his copy had the red background, while mine has the green. The things you learn!

Spider-Man: The Invasion of the Dragon Men

Track:
Invasion of the Dragon Men

Power Records issued a couple of their adventures in yet another format, a refitted book-and-record set that came with a 45 rpm record. I can't be sure just yet, but I believe they also used this cover when putting it out on cassette, which is why they changed "book and record" to "book and recording", which covers all bases.

The artwork looks like it was traced from Marvel comics/style guides--it's a little loose for the House of Ideas, but also tighter than the work of Bill Gow, who did the sleeves for a lot of Spider-Man 45" records.

Power Records Sci-Fi Display

A very fun display stand Peter Pan records sent out to stores, highlighting their sci-fi releases on their header card (which could presumably be swapped out for others, since I'm betting the base--featuring all the Power Records stars--stayed the same).

It's interesting that at the very top it says "Star Wars", as if there was some famous movie with a similar name that Power Records did not have the license for. Thanks once again to PlaidStallions.com for finding this gem!

Star Trek: Passage to Moauv Original Art

Neal Adams' beautiful original art to Star Trek: Passage to Moauv. It's interesting, because if you look closely, Kirk and Spock don't really look like Shatner and Nimoy, yet somehow look even more perfect the way Adams renders them.

 

 

Planet of the Apes: 4 Exciting New Stories

Tracks:

Battle of Two Worlds
Dawn of the Tree People
Mountain of the Delphi
Volcano

This was another one of those Power Records that I completely missed as a child: it wasn't until recently that I had any idea there were original POTA adventures, not just the movie adaptations.

For some reason, only three of the adventures found here were released as 45s, with "Volcano" being only found on this LP. The sleeve neatly represents the two different visual approaches Power used sometimes--the front looks like the work of the Fillipino artists that Marvel used in their comics and on the movie adaptations, while the back is cartoonier (the work of Bill Gow again?), presumably being done in-house. Zap!