7.24.2013

RZA on the power of imagination


  I was playing with my son and he goes "shoo-shoo"––making like he's shooting powers at me. "I'm sending my powers at you!" he'd yell. And the first time he did it, I said, "You know, that really won't hurt anybody."
   But the second time he did it, I didn't say that to him. Because I thought about it and realized that if you really have that will and that chi energy, and that understanding, who knows? Maybe you can fuck someone up that way. That thirty-sixth chamber in martial arts, that's the one where the fighter just forces energy at his opponent and knocks him across the room. So I don't want to take that away from a child.
   It's imagination. To imagine means to image. And once you make an image, you can make flesh. It's power upon power. And it's real. That power, that force--if you let it, it can move mountains.

RZA

Source: The Wu-Tang Manual, pg. 87

7.23.2013

The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu – Collect 'em all!

One thing that every collector realizes early on is that there will always be something new (or old) on the horizon that will trigger the desire to covet  hoard collect. My present guilty pleasure is the Marvel-affiliated magazine Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. Published during the kung-fu craze of the 1970s, this eye-gougingly good mag ran for 33 issues, between 1974 to 1977. In addition to serialized black and white comic strips starring a rotating cast of characters like Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, White Tiger, Daughters of the Dragon and others, each issue of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu also offered great interviews, articles, pop culture reviews, and so much more. How it was that not a single issue of this series was represented in my collection is worthy of a Scooby Doo Mystery. But the oversight has been corrected. Thanks to Ebay, I now own five of the seven or so issues that have piqued my interest: Since the Iron Fist comic book runs of Marvel Premiere 15-25 is complete, and Iron Fist 1-15 is one issue away from being complete, I'm focusing on the Deadly Hands issues that feature this kick ass character. I've got some classics, true believers. Check 'em out.

 
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