The other day, Dark Horse Comics editor Scott Allie spoke with Bloody Disgusting about their horrific plans for 2014. In the article you'll read about the new Prometheus, Grindhouse, and Strain comics. Not to mention the ever expanding Alien vs Predator saga. Frankly, the coolest aspect about that Battle Royal is the above cover by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. I don't think I've ever seen him tackle those icons before (at least not together), but these beasts are absolutely perfect for Mignola's newly refined style. The man is just getting better with age. Also, he talks a little about the next Hellboy in Hell arc titled "The Death Card," as well as the epic "Reign of the Black Flame" about to devastate the BPRD ongoing. Things are not going well for the last humans of Earth. Again, if you are not reading this series then you are missing out on the single greatest Apocalypse story ever fashioned in any medium. The below covers for next year's BPRD issues 115-119 showcase the history of the franchise from folks like Mignola, Richard Corbin, and Kevin Nowlan.
Still reading comics, though my rate declined considerably this week. Not a lot of movies. A couple more Jean Rollin films, to remind me why I think being a filmmaker in the 70s in France may have been one of history’s best jobs.
The Moon-Spinners: A couple of snooty Brits show up unexpected and unwanted to a village on Crete to sample some of the local color. But there’s some funny business going on, and Eli Wallach is at the center of it. It’s a pretty good caper film, with a nice exotic location.
Hot Tub Time Machine: “Well that makes sense.” In the 80s, our movies kept looking back to the 50s. Now, in the 2010s, we seem to enjoy looking back to the 80s. This movie, featuring a…yes, a Hot Tub Time Machine, is a shockingly funny, often crass but oddly sensitive look back to that crazy time of T&A movies and hard partying, when rocking hard enough, skiing, and wacky fashion were the name of the game. I feel like I enjoy this movie far more than I should. But it is a good look at friendship, even when it involves friends who are a-holes.
The Venture Brothers Season 3: “I gotta go where the blacktion is.” I love that this is basically a show about failure. Professional and personal failure. Romantic and physical failure. And the overall failure to achieve dreams both grand and intimate. As perverse and offensive as it is on the surface, there’s a deep bitterness that rings true. And season three has a lot more animated penis than you might expect.
The Iron Rose: OK, let me get out my Jean Rollin checklist. Pretty young woman? Check. A graveyard? Check. Lots of beautiful shots of various random locations? Check. Choppy editing? Check. Not a lot of ‘plot’ type business going on? Check. The only thing missing is Rollin’s signature wall to wall nudity. There’s shockingly little actually, when he gives himself plenty of opportunity to put in more. Like most of his films, it doesn’t make a lick of sense, but it’s an oddly captivating bit of fluff. I guess his work is more like a painting that is nice to look at, but doesn’t seem to say much.
Alien: Resurrection: My love of this film has diminished over the years. I think in part, I had Star Trek VI Syndrome (aka: Revenge of the Sith Syndrome). You know, when the previous movie is so bloody awful that even though the next one sucks, it seems pretty good, because it’s SO much better than the previous. Anyway, the movie has some great stuff. Some really cool scenes and sets and costumes. There are some great ideas. But the script is wonky and some of the performances are not good. Winona Ryder especially is really awful but she’s not alone. The CGI ranges from good to crap, though it’s generally better than Alien 3’s. It’s probably the most overtly sexual of the films. In fact, probably the only one to expand on the first film’s hints.
Doctor Who: The Five Doctors: These episodes really don’t work, but they’re kind of fun because you get to see all the old actors back, not just Doctor incarnations, but a few of his companions, too; all the way back to Susan for crying out loud. Sadly, they also drag out The Master…yet again. The Death Zone, huh. The actor playing the first Doctor does a fair job, but it’s still a bit distracting having someone other than Hartnell in the role. John Pertwee looks amazingly good. Patrick Troughton is starting to show his age, but is pretty spry. Tom Baker is only a few years retried for the role. Seriously, they drag out so many companions. There’s a fairly interesting mystery/revelation. Not much plot, really. Just ‘here they are’…‘there they go’…‘yup, that was them.’ But considering how many long lost actors and characters they needed to work into the story, it’s pretty well done. And remember to always reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.
Spy Game: As Brad Pitt was starting his transition from young shaved chimp to older actor (Oceans 11 being the turning point), he made this Tony Scott actioner. Head games, twists, turns, betrayals, and all kinds of spy business are committed to tinted, quick-cut, and generally Scotted film. He hadn’t reached the levels of Man on Fire or the extreme levels of Domino by this point, keeping things much more in the style of Enemy of the State. In fact, this would probably be a good companion film for that. Redford is less insufferable than usual, which is nice. A solid 90s spy/Mid-East conflict film along the lines of The Siege or The Peacemaker.
Requiem For a Vampire: How many clown shoot-outs did the last movie you saw have? If the answer is zero, then you’re missing out. Two young women dressed as clowns (who are likely Doors fans), wander around the French country side in that way women do in Jean Rollin films. I’d love to be the dialog editor on a film like this. Girl 1: “…” Girl 2: “…” Girl 1: “…” Classic. Obviously, there’s a graveyard (it is a Jean Rollin film). And there are beautiful girls and beautiful scenery. Not a lot of plot or talking. It has that vague logic-free feel of dreams, which I think might be the thing that keeps bringing me back to his movies. Its not that they’re good. They’re not. Yet, they’re oddly compelling in a way that transcends their schlocky Euro-trash T&A horror movie status.
Dragnet: As a boy, I thought this movie was the bee’s knees. It’s so 80s goofy. Back when Tom Hanks was the clown prince (well before his Oscar days). I absolutely loved the jokes, which are, to say the very least, corny. I loved the performances, especially Christopher Plummer. Today?…Well, it’s OK. There are some very funny bits, and Christopher Plummer is still awesome. But let’s be honest. It’s a dumb movie that pretty much spits in the face of the original show.
Prometheus: Well, it’s never pleasant when a highly anticipated film doesn’t live up. I try, and generally succeed, not to build up films too much before seeing them. Oh, sure, I want certain ones to blow me away, but generally, I’m just happy if it doesn’t suck and extra happy if it’s awesome. However, when a movie like this comes along, having SO much good going for it, yet doesn’t end up being all that great, I get pretty bummed. As so often happens, the biggest failure is in the writing. There’s a potentially cool story, but the end is crap. There is only one interesting character, and he isn’t explored very much at all. And if anything, this movie has too many connections to Alien, considering it really isn’t a prequel (seriously, think about it; it’s not; though yes, it’s in the same universe). I’ve never liked Ridley Scott’s idea that the alien was some kind of bio-weapon. I think it diminishes them as a species, taking away the glory of their evolutionary struggle. So, in a way, I was never going to be completely happy with this film. But, getting beyond that, after enjoying a lot of the first two thirds, the movie started to loose me when they introduced a new character, then totally lost me when they introduced…well, someone else (I’m not telling). And the finale was no good at all. The film looks flippin’ amazing, and there are some truly gorgeous images, both natural and very unnatural. The tech design is nice and the sets impressive. But it certainly doesn’t have the memorable and loveable characters that Alien had, which would have gone a LONG way toward making this a good film. Leaving the theater, I felt much like I did upon finishing Hellboy 2, empty. I want to grab the film by its shoulders and scream, ‘Why aren’t you better!?’
A thought I had after watching Prometheus is that a lot of folks making science fiction, especially in the realm of film (and TV) don’t really seem to get or like science. There is a lot of backward, superstitious thinking and fear, of technology, of the unknown, of truth. I think in part, it goes back to the fear that Lovecraft tapped into, the fear of understanding. I think for a lot of people, understanding that they are not important; that the universe will not register them or their lives in any grand-scale way; that they are, like everyone else, the product of millions of years of undirected, unplanned natural processes; makes them feel some kind of soul shaking terror. This fear creeps in to a lot of sci-fi movies, and it’s in Prometheus. There’s a difference between rational fear, that of a real danger and the fear of understanding. Rational fear makes you do things like properly prepare and attempt to avoid unnecessarily dangerous situations. Fear of understanding makes you stop looking, stop going forward. It makes you turn to musty old books of fairy stories, written by bronze age savages. It makes you hate well educated people (calling them elitist, as though knowledge is dirty). It makes you hold on to fetishes to ward off evil. It makes you ascribe will to natural phenomena. And give meaning to things that have none. I wish that movies, science fiction especially, featured a lot less magical thinking, and a lot more genuine thinking. Less fear of the unknown (which is really fear learning) and more love of the question.
I'm gonna do science on you so hard!
Now, Prometheus isn’t as science hating as movies like The Happening, Knowing, or 99% of science fiction made in the 70s. But the scientists act more like priests and failed seekers than men and women of science. The only one who seems to actually know what’s up is the one character in the film I genuinely cared about, the android. He seemed to be the only one to be curious and respectful of what he found. So, of course, he’s kind of a villain. Apparently to be a hero in a modern science fiction film, you’ve got to ‘let go’ and ‘just believe’ in some clap-trap. You certainly can’t use logic, ask questions, test a hypothesis, weigh results, or formulate a theory. No wonder we haven’t been to the moon in 40 years and 60% of the population thinks The Flinstones was a documentary.
As I said, I didn’t get as much comic reading done this week as I did last. But I read some fun stuff. Brad said he had some more comics to pass off to me, so those will be coming up.
Ed Brubaker’s run on Captain America was one of the first of Marvel’s ‘mainstream’ comics I think I read. I liked all the Cold War and World War II themes and deep history. The art was sure nice. And generally, I liked the story and writing. But, as I tend to do with long running comics, I got distracted and don’t think I ever finished the second story arc, Red Menace. I’ve kept up in the most passing of ways with the progress of Captain America since, through his death, the Civil War, replacement with Bucky, rebirth, etc. But I didn’t read any of the actual comics for any of that. So last week, Brad gave passed me the first five issues of the Bucky centered comic series Winter Soldier. Issue one gets right into it, with the Winter Soldier (Bucky) and Black Widow infiltrating and spy-smashing. Right off, there are lots of connections to both of their pasts with the Russians during the Cold War. Sleeper agents, mad science, and nefarious deeds. And a heck of an end. This is generally more my cup of tea than say the X-Men or the Avengers. I prefer the semi-realistic/semi-pulp vibe of Cap and Bucky and the spies and soldiers to the mutant powers. The art in this is strange. It looks at times like degraded photographs.
“I’m not losing my mind here…That gorilla just used a jetpack, right?” Issue 2 of Winter Soldier has the mystery getting deeper and the duo in hot pursuit of all kinds of shadowy figures. A brief appearance from Nick Fury doing some serious butt kicking is a nice aside.
The third issue of Winter Soldier features more investigation and weird tech, and lots of references to the larger Marvel universe and its recent history. As someone who doesn’t read much Marvel, it’s sometimes interesting to hear characters talk about events like the dismantling of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Reed Richards and such. And what’s up with Dr. Doom? I guess we’ll find out.
The plans within plans begin to unravel and be revealed, as the stakes are raised. Dr. Doom is a bit too Saturday morning cartoonish, and doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the comic. I guess they’ve got to keep him in line with how he’s normally portrayed, but it’s weird. I like all the spy stuff, and the assassination business. Even the crazy cyborg chick who wants to start a war is pretty cool. But I don’t know. Doom is kind of goofy.
The Longest Winter storyline of Winter Soldier wraps up in issue 5. The finale is pretty much one long action scene, with lots of jumping, machine gunning, and the like. The post climax revenge bit is pretty cool though. Overall, the five issue story is pretty good, though again, Doom is pretty silly. He seems like a character that could be pretty cool; a super-genius ruler of his own nation, in a kickass armored suit. But I think he’s just always been written like an old time movie serial villain, missing only a mustache to twirl.
What do you get when you put Garth Ennis on a Marvel MAX line? Well, lots and lots and lots of expletives, mostly. And some violence on occasion. Fury: My War Gone By could be a pretty cool comic. Issue one goes back to the 50s during the buildup to the Vietnam war. We find Nick Fury exiled because of an act of heroism that didn’t go unpunished. As various forces play chess in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Fury watches, trying to make the best of his lot. The look and feel is very retro, with a gritty, ugly look at life for soldiers during a tenuous peace. No superheroes or what have you. Just men and a woman in the sweltering heat as all hell rolls toward them. That all said, the constant use of expletives starts to feel almost like a parody at times. And what is it with comics that you can show all kinds of violence, but you can barely even talk about sex, and certainly not show it? I guess it’s the same on TV, though. There’s a weird phenomena in the Marvel universe, where a lot of their characters have been alive and relatively fit and young for a very, very long time. I’d kind of like to see them deal with that a bit more. Fury is a very, very old man. The Black Widow, though still looking quite young, has been active since what, the 50s? Many of the X-Men, Reed Richards, and others have been going fairly strong since the 60s. Shouldn’t that do something to people?
I guess the powers that be at Marvel felt they had to restart Captain America around the time of the recent film. I’m not sure why, as it’s still Ed Brubaker writing and follows the ongoing story. Getting past that, I still like Brubaker’s take on the character, with World War II always weighing heavily on his consciousness. I don’t know if Bravo is a new invention for this story. I’ll have to look. I’ll have to see how this series goes.
Keeping with the Captain America theme, I read the 70th Anniversary Issue (#616). It’s a collection of shorts with a kind of retrospective feel. The one really frustrating thing is that the Bucky story, Gulag part 1 doesn’t have a part 2 in this book, nor do I know where it appears. Still, the other stories are all self contained and as with most anthologies, vary in style and quality. My favorite is probably Howard Chaykin’s Opaque Shadows. My least favorite is easily Operation: Tooth Fairy, which is just goofy in look and content.
In preparation for the upcoming first meeting of Lisa’s new graphic novel book club, I read the first Astonishing X-Men (review coming after meeting).
A lot of this week was spent in a sort of anticipation of seeing Prometheus, plus, I’ve been kind of busy on a lot of nights, so I didn’t get to the reading I wanted to. I’m hoping this next week will not only give me a bit more reading time, but also some good weather to hit the road on my bike. I would not lament a week without a near constant threat of rain.
This Week in Dork was all about the Alien Saga and the build to Friday's Prometheus. Not just one of my most anticipated films of the summer, but of the whole year, Prometheus stirred up some complicated emotions I was not really expecting. As a means of preparation for the new Ridley Scott film, I decided to watch the Alien films in reverse order. That may or may not have been a good idea. Not sure if I should have bothered trying to fit Prometheus into that cannon...at least not Aliens, Alien 3, and Resurrection.
The other big news this week was that I made my Podcast debut on the After Movie Diner's special report on the Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con. It was a great honor to appear on the show and I really had blast discussing my insane Shatner love with Jon and he didn't seem to mind my inane Cosplay ramblings. Hopefully you wont' either. Also, if you listen closely you'll hear Matt giggling in the background as I proclaim my Moontrap love. Hopefully this will be the first of many Podcast appearances; a new wave of ITMOD world domination has begun.
If by some crazy psychological mixup, you're not listening to the After Movie Diner than you're really missing one of the whackier and extremely entertaining podcasts out there. Absolutely loved the last ep dissecting Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, and featuring a great interview with actress Barbara Crampton. Really looking forward to her appearance in the home invasion flick You're Next.
Alien - Resurrection: "A Beautiful, Beautiful Butterfly!" If you watch this film after Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3 you might come away filled with a shrugging, eye-rolling hate. But if you watch Resurrection alone...and try to forget everything else you've seen before in the franchise...than it's not all that bad. For Joss Whedon, the crew of the Betty is a dry run for the crew of the Serenity and I really do love Brad Dourif's taunting affection for his cloned creations. However, there's no denying that Jean-Pierre Jeunet directs the performances into the uber-heights of screaming melodrama, and his Newborn mewling baby still gives me a serious case of oogie nausea. That thing is just gross.
Alien 3: The 2003 cut of Alien 3 adds a little more religion and sacrifice to the conversation and it hints at a possible Great film behind David Fincher's lens. But what I take away most from the third act in the Alien franchise is just how filthy and disgusting the prison planet, Fury 161 truly is--roaches, roaches, roaches. Aliens was always going to be a tough act to follow and maybe going back to the formula of the first film was the right choice, but in making another space slasher you guarantee comparisons to greatness where James Cameron cleverly avoided that by jumping genres. Still, this is not the crap film most would have you believe. Weaver is fantastic as the brutalized Ripley, and the monstrous convicts she has for help are a fascinating collection of characters. Much more interesting than James Cameron's gung ho marines.
Aliens: I've seen Aliens so many times I can watch the film whenever I want just by closing my eyes. And with such a familiarity, some of the shine has worn away. Sure, James Cameron took the original haunted space house narrative and transformed it into one of the best action films of the 1980s. But the action thrills don't grab me the same way that the chills and world building of the original still manage to muster. Sigourney Weaver's Ripley is dragged back into the xenomorph horror with the help corporate stooge Paul Reiser, and Michael Biehn leads a platoon of supreme badasses against the alien threat. But the real stars of the film are Stan Winston's beautifully grotesque creatures crawling outta the walls and bursting from chest cavities. I miss puppets.
Alien: My 10th Favorite Film of All Time. Alien does not simply succeed on the success of HR Giger's Alien design or the stunning set work. With the exception of possibly John Carpenter's The Thing, this cast is unparalleled in genre cinema. Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartwright, and Sigourney Weaver. They sell the environment around the dinner table, their joking, their barbs, their vitriol. And when the star beast starts slashing its way through the cast, they sell the terror with their fear shrieks and cries of anger. Ridley Scott masters the build with Alien, and the creature feature climax does not disappoint thanks to the first 2/3rds of character & tension building.
Dragnet: Yeah. That's right. I love Dragnet. The Movie. Forget the tv show. The movie is where it's at. Dan Aykroyd never cracks a smile as Detective Friday, even when he's partnered with the hyper sexual lug that is Tom Hanks' wisecracking Pep Streebek. The film is totally 80s with its high hair, pointless strip club sequences, Dabney Coleman lisping, and Alexandra Paul's ultimate hapless virgin. Christopher Plummer is far too entertaining as the priest gone P.A.G.A.N. and his sleazy smile steals every scene. Cheeze. But glorious cheeze.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming-
Prometheus: Full disclosure. I am going to have to see this movie again. I've been looking forward to Prometheus since its production start, but my anticipation for the Alien prequel exploded when I first glimpsed footage at last year's San Diego Comic Con. So, as with most similar cinematic situations, the film failed to match my ridiculous fanboy anticipation.
While watching Prometheus I couldn't help but recall the crew of the Nostromo, a crew of space truckers scrounging the cosmos as a means of making a buck; who fall victim to corporate greed and a pesky intergalactic terror. As stated above, what works so dang well with that original Alien are the interactions between the characters and the twisty path their narratives take--the typical heroic Captain fails to save the day, the science officer goes white blood crazy, the pushy intense Number 2 takes the lead and saves the cat, etc. But the crew of the Prometheus never wanders from their cliched archetypes. Noomi Rapace's true believer scientist runs the show with her faith and never wavers, Charlize Theron's ice queen plants herself as an unlikable witch, Michael Fassbender's mysteriously untrustworthy droid remains mysteriously untrustworthy. There's barely an arc to their story. Very frustrating.
But maybe it's unfair to compare the two crews. Maybe I just need to accept their placement within the plot. Focus on that. Ok. It's a solid science fiction tale in which a group of scientists attempt to discover the engineers of mankind and it's all kinda woo-y Chariots of the Gods stuff. A staple of UFO genre fiction.
Where the film really works is in Ridley Scott's eye. He paints an absolutely beautiful picture with brilliant sets, costume design, special effects, and yes, creature work. Charlize Theron & Michael Fassbender are phenomenal even in their narrowly defined roles and surrounded by bumbling dimbulb biologists--AND don't even get me started on that punk rock geologist. Fassbender's David is probably the most fascinating character in the film with his daddy issues and cinematic hero worship. And damit, I kept hoping Theron & Fassbender were going to wrestle the script away from Rapace and her super annoying boyfriend. There was a great film tucked behind their characters, just waiting to break free.
Again, I want to see this movie for a second round. Since the credits rolled it's all I've been thinking about. So that right there means it had a serious effect on me. And I'm guessing now that those pesky expectations can be put to the side, I can just sit back and enjoy. And I really cannot wait to see this flick on blu ray.
COMICS OF THE WEEK!
Batman - Death By Design: This is one of those stand alone Batman graphic novels that doesn't quite fit into the continuity of the comic, but doesn't negate it either. Writer Chip Kidd & artist Dave Taylor look to the Batman of yesteryear for a retro tale of corporate fraud, architecture terrorism, and The Joker (yeah, him again). It's an absolutely stunning book and even if the story had been absolutely crap, this hardcover would totally be worth its $24.99 price tag. Thankfully, this art deco beauty has a fun narrative as well. A young Bruce Wayne is still finding his way under the cowl when a series of devastating mishaps occur during the construction of the new Wayne Central Station. What do these "accidents" have to do with his father's legacy? And who is the mysterious Exacto? And why does the Clown Prince of Crime seem so interested in Wayne's crumbling foundation? I would hate to think this is a one time deal from Kidd & Taylor, as I would like to see a whole series of retro Bat adventures from them.
Batman - Knightfall Volume 2: Bane has broken The Batman. Crippled, Bruce Wayne leaves Gotham in the hands of the brainwashed Jean Paul Valley aka Azrael, the psychotic vigilante haunted by the ghost of his father and the religious order of St. Dumas. Bwwwwaaa huh? Wayne should probably have done a little more research on his successor, and for 600 + pages, this new techno Batman brutalizes the rogues of Gotham. Sure, sure, sure, he fights the usuals like The Joker and Clayface Three (uh, don't ask), but the real fun of this ridiculously 90s epic are the whack-o, who-the-hell-are-they villains like Gunhawk, Abattoir, and the quickdraw cowboy twins Tom & Tad. You need these newbie freaks for Psycho Bats to execute. After all he can't be the one to actually take down The Joker. Honestly, I much preferred the this volume of Knightfall to the first if only cuz Batman is not such a sickly, wimpy mess. And I kinda adore the idiocy of these 90s bad guys. Yep, looking forward to Volume 3 where Bats takes back the cowl.
Baltimore - The Curse Bells: Christopher Golden & Mike Mignola team up once more for the second volume of Baltimore. Set shortly after the events of The Great War, Lord Baltimore travels to Lucerne Switzerland on the hunt for the one-eyed vampire beast that killed his entire family. The Curse Bells feels like the best of Hammer Horror, Ben Stenbeck's monstrous illustrations deliver chills as vampire nuns cry tears of blood and a wannabe dictator carves his fate from a sacrificial womb. This is epic comic book horror. The first Baltimore trade was fun, but The Curse Bells is one of the best horror comics to come our way in a long, long time. A Must Read.
Before Watchmen - Minutemen #1: Well, here's the first in DC Comics' Watchmen cash-in event. And yeah, it still feels funny. And pointless. Don't get me wrong, Darwyn Cooke's art is bloody fantastic and he's the perfect fit for the origins of the Minutemen crime fighting team. But based on this first issue, I just don't get the point of exploring the backstory of these minor characters from Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons' original book. We got all we needed back in the 80s. This just feels unnecessary. I'm not gonna bother with the other books unless I start to hear rave reviews, and I probably will only pick up the trade of Minutemen cuz I love Darwyn Cooke's art so much.
X-O Manowar #2: This reboot on the other hand I'm absolutely enjoying. Not sure if I care about the other new Valiant books but with its crazy brains alien religion, visigoth warrior mentality, mighty morphin power suit, and Cary Nord's stunning art, X-O Manowar is one of the most entertaining books on the stand right now. Granted we're only two issues into the new series and it can all go tits up but so far soooooo good. And now that the keeper of Shannara has been chosen, it looks like we're gonna get a whole bunch of spider alien hate crimes. Excellent.
Ragemoor #3: With only one more issue of the mini series to go, we're finally starting to get some focus to the plot. Master Herbert's desires for Anoria are threatened when the sneaky poacher Tristano sneaks into her bed chamber for some late night loving. Well, as a groundskeeper of a living castle, he's got a whole mess load of diabolical masonry and skullheaded baboons at his disposal and his actions will be devastating. But will the lovely Anoria be persuaded by his charms or just chuck herself into oblivion? Not being a cheery book, Master Herbert might have to find new beauties to obsess over. Plenty of squid creatures and beetle men hanging around.
B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth - The Transformation of J.H. O'Donnell: Here's a quick one-shot that finally reveals the origin of the nutjob occult investigator JH O'Donnell and it's all very typical BPRDish kinda stuff. Spooky houses, cult sacrifices, and plenty of sadness. Via flashback, it's great to see Hellboy pop up for a little while and I really hope that artist Max Fiumara returns to the series on a more regular basis since his illustrations perfectly capture the depressing nature of this new world Hell on Earth universe. But this is just a breather until we're back on board The Devil's Engine.
MUSIC OF THE WEEK!
Avery Brooks' Here Album: The Wife picked this up last week at the Philadelphia Comic Con and I've been listening to it in chunks during car rides back and forth from work. It's a typically jazzy creation you would expect from the man called Hawk, and it is laced with the beautifully weird and wonky philosophy glimpsed at during William Shatner's The Captains documentary. Here is definitely not for your average joe, you gotta have some serious Star Trek or Spencer For Hire love to truly appreciate it's tones, but if you're willing than you'll have a blast with both the jazz and spoken word (soooo much spoken word).
