Rocky II

Sylvester Stallone: 5 Awesome Performances and 5 That Sucked.

On February 1, 2013, WhatCulture! posted Sylvester Stallone: 5 Awesome Performances and 5 That Sucked.

  • According to WhatCulture! 5 that were Awesome: Rambo [First Blood and sequels], John Spartan [Demolition Man], Gabe Walker [Cliffhanger], Freddy Heflin [Cop Land], and Rocky Balboa [Rocky and sequels].
  • Their Choices for Not-So-Awesome: Judge Dredd [same name], Ray Quick [The Specialist], Marion Cobretti [Cobra], Jack Carter [Get Carter], and Joe Bomoski [Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!].

To Awesome I would delete Spartan and Walker to make room for Jack Carter and Deke Dasilva [Nighthawks].  To Not-So-Awesome I would delete Carter and add Nick from Rhinestone. – Craig

Sly’s Philly Police Protection

That’s a rare photo of Sly [with his friend, Tony Munafo, to the far right] taken when Sly was in Philly for Rocky II. The police officer in the photo is Warren Messing who often worked with celebrities who came to town. You can see a larger version of the photo above and read more about the celebrities that Officer Messing worked with at this Philly.com article.

Sean Gordon Murphy: Rocky & Butkus

Sean Gordon Murphy is one of those artists who just seems to come out of nowhere with his own distinctive style that you can’t help but love.  I met Sean at last year’s Heroes Con.  His sketch list was full, but he said he started a new list each day and I should check back the next day.  I made sure I was first in line and ended up with this classic piece of Rocky and Butkus.

You can see more of Sean’s art at his site and his DA spotSean is going to be at Heroes again this year and I’m hoping that lighting strikes twice.

Ranking the “Rocky” Movies

On February 9, 2011, ChicagoNow.com posted Ranking the Rocky Movies by Kyle Trompeter.  While I don’t agree with Kyle’s rankings, he does make a good case for each choice… and there is a surprise or two in his list.

And for the record, here is how I rank them:

1.  Rocky and Rocky Balboa.  {Perfect bookends to the series]
2.  Rocky III
3.  Rocky II [Depending on my mood sometimes I flip positions on II and IV]
4.  Rocky IV
5.  Rocky V [While many fans really dislike Rocky V, I am thankful that because of it we got Rocky Balboa]

- Craig