Comic Review: ROM Issue 0

    Legal issues. Legal issues suck for fans who just want to enjoy a thing. Be it music rights, or what have you. Rom was a comic I used to pick through when I was a kid. I think one of my brothers read it. I’m sure I snagged a few issues out of the 3 for a dollar bin at Pro Libris in Bangor, ME. I liked the look of the character. I liked the space battles. Only later did I find out there were legal battles behind the scenes. This or that person or company owned this or that element. Blah, blah, blah. Fast-forward a long, long time, and IDW has managed to get it all sorted out, bringing Rom back to comics just in time for 2016’s Free Comic Book Day.

    Unfortunately, I immediately got a Stan Lee era Silver Surfer vibe. He’s a Space Knight! So, he’s now on contemporary Earth fighting alien invaders. Production budget isn’t an issue on a comic book, so setting a cosmic comic on contemporary Earth is almost as baffling as it is infuriating. Also, the dialog isn’t great. It’s not terrible. I mean, it’s not Stan Lee awful. But Rom references his various tools by name in a way you usually get in Saturday morning cartoons. “My ENERGY ANALYZER will reveal all.” Sigh. The art is OK. Rom’s design is a touch more Japanese-mecha looking, but not as much as usually happens with these newer redesigns.

    So, I’m glad the character is back in rotation. I’m glad the legal issues have been worked out. Now, maybe they can put a better team on it some time.

-Matthew J. Constantine

Comic Review: Transformers VS G.I. Joe

    Full disclosure, here.  As a wee lad, G.I. Joe, was my jam.  I had the toys, I watched the cartoon, I listened to the audio-stories, I had the bed sheets; you name it.  It was even the book that I delved into during my first, short-lived attempt at following comics.  My fandom did not continue into adulthood, but I have fond memories, none the less.  However, I never thought too much of Transformers.  I watched the cartoon, and I guess I enjoyed it (more than Voltron or He-Man and some of the others popular at the time).  But I wasn’t in to the toys, I never contemplated putting an Autobots sticker on my car, and I flippin’ hate the new movies (I kinda like the second live-action G.I. Joe film).  I won’t swear to it, but I think the only Transformers thing I ever read was a G.I. Joe VS Transformers comic set during World War II, from the early 2000s.  I liked it, but it didn’t make me seek out more.

    So, I had little interest in another crossover between these franchises.  But, I’m a big fan of Tom Scioli and his mad bastard Jack Kirby-like insanity.  When I heard he was working on the project, I knew I’d have to give it a look, even if it otherwise didn’t interest me.  Scioli’s that good.  Free Comic Book Day came along, and there was a preview issue.  I took it home and may have even read it that night.  Holy crap!  Reading it was like plucking childhood memories right out of my head.  It had the weird little kid logic I used to employ when playing.  The same vaguely sick sense of wonder and horror that produced things like building huge structures, peppered with action figures, then knocking them down to see how all the bodies end up.  The dialog, the plotline, the crazy ideas; Scioli and co-author John Barber are tapped into something.  This is everything my weird little brain would have wanted the cartoon to be, everything it was when I was alone.

    You can’t talk about a Scioli project and not talk about the art.  With hyper-weird images sifted through Golden Age comic mentality, his work explodes with energy.  And with his odd, slightly off, almost muted colors, reading the book sometimes feels like reading the backs of packages, or those full page ads you’d find in comic books from the 80s.  Scioli’s work calls out for color, and it gets a ton here.

    If you were a kid in the 80s, if you played with G.I. Joes or Transformers, if you’re in to weird comics, and if you like the idea of something way, way out there being dressed in a mainstream, commercial skin, read Transformers VS G.I. Joe.  It’s the kind of thing I love, the kind of book I sit back and wonder, ‘how the hell did this get greenlit?’

Transformers VS G.I. Joe
Authors: Tom Scioli & John Barber
Artist: Tom Scioli
Publisher: IDW
ISBN: 978-1-63140-190-9

-Matthew J. Constantine

Dork Art: Parker Hits Toronto

Just spotted this over at Almost Darwyn Cooke's Blog.  This original poster print will be available at TCAF this weekend, along with several special editions of Cooke's Parker comics.  The release party is meant as a preview for IDW's relaunch of the Richard Stark novels.  As much as I love the Graphic Novel adaptations, even a master like Cooke can't quite equal the succinct brutality of Donald Westlake's writing.  The Hunter remains one of the great works of crime fiction, and even though I love to see fanboys raving over the comics, it's frustrating to see so few of them bother with the original books.  The University of Chicago Press trade paperbacks are wonderful, but these gorgeously illustrated (again, by Cooke) hardcover novels from IDW will hopefully drag some of these geeks to the hardboiled prose.  If you can't make TCAF this weekend (like me & most of the world) the new Hunter hardcover will hit the shelves June 10th for 29.99.

--Brad

Comic Review: Godzilla The Half-Century war

    Godzilla, like many long running franchises (James Bond, Star Trek, Doctor Who, etc.) has been many things over the years.  It started as an atomic allegory with strong post-Hiroshima/Nagasaki imagery.  It evolved into an environmental message series, aimed primarily at the young.  And it came back (twice) as slightly more serious, less intellectual, bad-science fiction, typical of contemporary, post-anime Japanese film.  Along the way, it has featured comedy, adventure, mystery, conspiracy, and occasionally horror.  The best films use Godzilla and the other monsters as forces of nature…natural disasters.  The best of the films feature compelling and interesting people trying to survive and understand as the world is torn down around them.  And with Godzilla: The Half-Century War James Stokoe has extracted some of the best of the films to create a five chapter, five decade epic of one man’s life in the shadow of the beast.

    Starting with its first appearance in the 50s, our hero Ota and his spaced out friend Ken are on the front line of history.  After proving their metal in the burning hell of Tokyo, they’re recruited for a special group gathered to study and stop Godzilla.  During the Vietnam War, things escalate when it is discovered that Godzilla isn’t so unique, and there might be people working behind the scenes with ulterior motives.  From there the story takes us to Africa, then Bombay, and finally to Antarctica, as the world is hammered down into burning rubble by the chaotic battling of kaiju.  Stokoe manages to work in many series favorites, even some of the weirder, lamer new monsters, while weaving the sad life’s story of a man trying to understand the wild thing he has spent his life fighting.

    Several especially effective moments stand out, particularly in the turning point story set in Ghana.  Here, as so many monsters come together and lay waste to a city, Ota is irrevocably changed.  The scenes of him sitting in the blasted building, watching the carnage, are quite striking.  And the sequence in the VW bus just the right dash of comic relief, which feels like something right out of one of those 70s films.  And Stokoe’s art manages to be extremely busy, yet evocative.  The colors are beautiful and the action very well done.

    For any Godzilla/Kaiju fan, this book is an absolute must.  It gives the genre the respect it deserves, tells a good story, and I think lives up to the potential of the ideas.  In many ways, this is to the Godzilla series what Marvels by Busiek and Ross was to the Marvel Universe.  And like Marvels, you don’t need to be a fan to appreciate it, but if you are a fan, I think it will be especially affecting.

Godzilla: The Half-Century War
Author/Artist: James Stokoe
Publisher: IDW
ISBN: 978-1613775950

-Matt

Baltimore Comic-Con: looking in the rearview mirror, part 2

In the first part of my retrospective on exhibiting at this year’s Baltimore Comic-con, I went on about the fan-service aspect of the show.  The creators I finally got to meet, the books I got signed, the enjoyment I got from attending a “big” comic show for the first time in a number of years.  And it was a great time, on that front.  But how was the “professional” side of the convention?

Sales were soft, which is really downplaying how tepid our sales were.  And I saw a similar thing – a cone of silence expanding in a five-foot arc around the front of an exhibitor’s table – in a lot of areas of Artists Alley.  Which is not to say there weren’t some creators who did well here, especially the artists (with prints of zombies or Dr. Who, please, judging by the attendees).  We had high hopes for this show, and, admittedly, it was disappointing on the sales front.  It certainly seems our audience is at the Small Press Expo, which is usually held the weekend after Baltimore Comic-con just down the road in Bethesda, Maryland.  That said, this was a pretty great convention for me, as an aspiring writer.

Early on the first day, Chris Staros (one of the head honchos or Top Shelf Publishing) was walking through Artists Alley.  Recognizing me, he stopped to talk for a few minutes, commenting on the wealth of books we had on offer and asking specifically about the collections we had.  We discussed rejection letters and publishing and how the perception and the reality of both creating and publishing are very similar.  Staros is intelligent, frank, and overly generous with his time, and I’ve been having conversations like this with him since before Dan and I started writing seriously.  But since then, we’ve also been sharing our work with Staros, offering copies of our new works when we go to conventions and discussing what works and what doesn’t within our growing body of work.  Staros has seen us at these shows, has seen our growth as creators and is aware of our inability to give up on this “crazy dream.”  By continuing to create new stories, by setting up at these shows, by having these conversations with Staros in person and through email, we’ve fostered a relationship with him that may pay dividends down the road.  He knows we’re serious; he knows who we are; and I know that if I ever had a proposal I believed fit with the Top Shelf brand, Chris Staros would give it serious consideration.

That wouldn’t have happened if we’d given up after our first, disastrous time exhibiting.

Later on Saturday, another, smaller publisher (forgive me for being coy, but I am superstitious, to a point) came strolling through Artists Alley, right in front of my table.  I recognized him and called him over.  Turns our, he was walking this aisle because he knew I was set up in the area.  We’ve gotten to know one another through common online forums, as well as through setting up at smaller conventions these past few years.  I love what his new company is doing, as far as their publishing line, and he is another person with whom I’ve shared my newer stories whenever we were at the same convention.  We talked comics for a bit (at least at a comic convention you don’t need to come up with a pithy ice-breaker; we’re all there for the same thing), and then he third-eyed me (that’s how the kids put it nowadays, yeah?).  Looking to the future, he wondered if I’d be interested in talking with him about possibly working with his publishing company on a new venture they’re hoping to put forth toward the end of 2014 or into 2015, depending, as always, on how well the current scheduling stays on track.  Hell, yeah!  That conversation, right there, made my day.

This conversation and opportunity (one that doesn’t mean I will be working with them, but does mean I will have the opportunity to share my story ideas and maybe see something get published through them) was only possible because, again, I have continued to write – growing as a creator, as a result of this – and continued to get my stories drawn and fostered a relationship with this man.  Never would’ve happened if we’d given up after that first time in 2005.

So, after Saturday I was feeling pretty good.  Sunday only improved on that.  Joe Hill was going to be signing at the IDW booth that day, and I wanted to get a chance to speak with him for a minute.  When I went over to inquire about the logistics of the signing, I recognized the guy running the booth as someone who’d worked for Dark Horse when Dan and I exhibited at Chicago in 2005; he’d been the one handing out tickets for the Frank Miller signing that year.  So I asked him if he had worked for Dark Horse and then we chatted for a quick bit.  I mentioned that we were tabling as well and he told me to bring some of my work by to show him.  Not a fool, I made sure to get copies of both my give-away books for the Joe Hill line.  And after meeting Hill and speaking with him, I went back around and handed my books to the guy at the booth, who is the VP of marketing for IDW.  He thanked me and asked if I had his card.  No.  So he handed me his business card and told me to send along some digital copies so he could share them with the editorial staff.  Bam!  This, coupled with the Joe Hill signing (which is a great story but not pertinent to this “professional-centric” piece), had me feeling pretty damn good for a couple of hours.  Obviously, this doesn’t mean my epic graphic novel will be coming out from IDW in time for Christmas, nor does it mean I’m ever going to be published by IDW.  But my work will get a look from the editorial staff. 

And – I obviously cannot stress this enough – this opportunity would never have come about if I didn’t have a body of work to share with editors and publishers.  If Dan and I hadn’t been working toward exhibiting at a new show every year, I wouldn’t have been trying to produce new work and new stories.  I would never have gotten to the point I am now, where I am unable to not write.  It took a few years, but it has become a habit, something I really can’t live without because when I got a few days without writing, I become irritable and anxious.  It’s part of me, and I can see how far I’ve come since 2005, while realizing how far I still have to go.  But doors are opening, just a little.  And I need to be ready to take that step through.  Without having exhibited, without having written or created, without having gotten stories published (a result of those previous facts in this long statement), I wouldn’t be able to create these opportunities.  You have to do the work in order to improve, and you have to do the work in order to make your own luck. 

Now, the question becomes where to put my focus.  I know that SPX is the show where our audience is, and it’s the show where we have the most success sales-wise, and it is a show I love.  But there are very few publishers there, as compared to a show like Baltimore.  And with the reality that Dan and I can only do one show a year, along with where my life is at this point, being a “publisher” is not something we can pursue, and, truth be told, not something I want to pursue.  I want to find a publisher willing to get my stories into readers’ hands.  But do we get a table again, especially with Baltimore going to a three-day show?  Or do we choose to merely go as attendees and walk around with our books to share, as we see fit?  I’m not sure.  At least I’ve got some time to think about it.

Meanwhile, I’ll be writing – working toward creating more opportunities for myself.  It’s what I do.

-chris

(As always, you can read more from Chris at Warrior 27)

Comic Review: Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft

    I’ve been hearing about this book for years, and it’s circled around my head as one of those, ‘yeah, I’ll get to it’ titles.  Well, thanks to the graphic novel discussion group I belong to, my hand was forced and I’m glad of it.  This is the first volume of at least five, and though I have every intention of doing so, I have yet to read further.  Welcome to Lovecraft sets up a lot, hints at a lot, and reveals some interesting, but mysterious ‘facts.’  By the end of the volume, I was darned curious about a lot.  One question that plagues my mind is whether or not I read too much into the dark haired woman in the well.  With the Lovecraft reference, I ascribed a Nyarlathotep-type background to her, a bringer of chaos, and one of the only Old Ones to purposefully turn its gaze upon humans, to our lasting horror.  She (it?) fits that mold in this first volume, but again, I think I may be reading too much, or too much of the wrong thing, into it.  Time will tell.  Whatever the case, Hill has set up a great many dominos and shaken the table.  I need to read on, to find out how everything falls.

    One thing is a touch off-putting for this reader; the art.  Now, obviously, art is very subjective.  What I like, and what the next Dork likes will never be exactly the same (talk to my co-Dork Brad about the art in Hawkeye and then talk to me…Or don’t).  And it’s not that Gabriel Rodriguez’s work isn’t technically well done.  (Though it’s not my cup of tea, with the big eyes and kind of cartoony look).  It’s more that the art doesn’t feel quite right with the writing.  Maybe it’s intentional, but things look too nice or happy or…well, cartoon-like.  The subject feels more like something that should be in black & white, or in some old Eerie or Tales from the Crypt style of art.  That said, there are some panels I absolutely love.  The look on young Bode’s face when he’s ‘dead.’  Priceless.  And that shot where the woman in the well climbs out…I actually had a cinematic ‘jump’ when I looked at that panel, something that’s never happened to me in a comic before.  It was startling, and shows that I was engaged with the book.

    Personal artistic taste aside, the book is excellent.  I add my voice to all those others that have probably already told you to read Locke & Key.  And someday in the near future I’ll be listening to my own inner voice and I’ll read the next few volumes.  If you like Neil Gaiman or Clive Barker, especially their more ‘urban fantasy’ work, you should get right on Locke & Key.

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft
Author: Joe Hill
Artist: Gabriel Rodriguez
Publisher: IDW
ISBN: 978-160010237-0

-Matt

Dork Art: Paul Shipper's Khan + Honest Trailer

Paul Shipper is quickly becoming one of my favorite Dork Artists.  The man has a picture perfect style reminiscent of Drew Struzan, and I can only dream that his illustrations becomes the new standard for movie posters.  Sigh.  At the very least, comic publisher IDW is taking notice, as they've brought him on to do cover work for their October Khan miniseries.  Never mind the fact that the White Khan makes no sense within the context of the reboot/sequel, or the fact that IDW has already done a Khan miniseries detailing the dictator's rise to power.

While we're at it let's also ignore the fact that IDW's Star Trek comics are at best mediocre.  And I'm sure you're not at all interested in another anti-Star Trek Into Darkness rant from me.  Let's just be happy with some pretty artwork, and I'll let the good folks over at Honest Trailers rip Abrams a new one.  Seriously, the below trailer sums up all of Into Darkness's problems better than a million angry blog rants.  Have a laugh and give a watch.

--Brad

Comic Review: The Rocketeer Cargo of Doom

    It will come as no surprise to readers that I am a huge fan of the pulps, of movie serials, and classic adventure stories.  I think old timey stuff is the bee’s knees, the berries, swell even.  So when I saw The Rocketeer many years ago, I thought it was the business.  And when I found out it was based on a comic, which was itself inspired by all those old serials and pulps I loved, I knew I had to read it.  Sadly, it was out of print and next to danged impossible to find.  Eventually seeing a reprint, I was able to enjoy Dave Stevens’ kick-butt original stories for the first time only a few years ago.  I was in hog heaven.  But that was it.  He wrote only enough to be collected in one standard sized hardcover graphic novel.  And he died.  That was it.  But then a bunch of comic people who loved it too came together and made some more stories, The Rocketeer Adventures, which were nice brief reads.  And I guess it was popular enough that Cargo of Doom came about; a four issue story that has enough time to feel like it’s got more meat.

    Mark Waid is a comic mainstay, and his name isn’t always attached to impressive projects.  But he was one of the early guys I read when I was getting into comics with the Crossgen lines.  And I have to give him credit for capturing the right tone for this book.  It’s got enough ‘aw gee, shucks’ innocence and dashing adventure, and lacks cynicism that might make it descend into parody.  It’s pretty pitch perfect in its continuation of Stevens’ work, drawing on the things he clearly loved.  This story is rooted in one of my favorites, too.  Yes, there’s a ship heading to L.A. recently out of a certain mystery shrouded South Pacific island.  It’s not the first ship from that island to bring dangerous cargo Stateside, and the last time things didn’t go too well, either.  The art also manages to strike a balance of quality, retro, fun, and exciting.  Chris Samnee uses more traditional panel design to good effect.  Something about the look of the whole reminded me of Tin-Tin comics.

    Mark Waid sets up some larger story threads here that I hope mean more tales are on the way.  Who is the mysterious puppet-master behind the importation of dangerous beasts?  Will Cliff start to notice Sally as she becomes a woman?  How will Betty deal with potential competition; will she realize that bitchy jealousy isn’t the answer?  And where will conflicted loyalties eventually lead people?  Here’s hoping we find out.  In fact, just a week before sitting down to this collected volume, I heard tell that Waid is slated to do another Rocketeer story.  Time will tell.

The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom
Author: Mark Waid
Artist: Chris Samnee
Publisher: IDW
ISBN: 978-1613775653

-Matt

Dork Art: Mars Attacks Judge Dredd!

Have you been paying attention in your local comic shops this month?  Mars is Attacking Everyone!  Comic publisher IDW is pitting our favorite Ack Ackers against the rock band KISS, Transformers, The Real Ghostbusters, Chew, Popeye (yes, Popeye) and Judge Dredd.  I'm not sure I want to shell out the cash for all these tie-ins, but I definitely appreciate the bonkers attitude.  Especially this beautiful image posted above.  What are those poor Martian devils thinking going up against Mega City One's toughest lawman.  Those buggers don't have a chance.

--Brad

Comic Review: Womanthology- Heroic

    It’s no secret that comics have long been a male dominated field, from the writers to the artists, to the target audiences.  It’s the same with my other loves, science fiction and roleplaying.  And I don’t like it.  So, when I heard about this project, an anthology created by women, featuring women of all ages and levels of experience, from young girls just starting out to industry veterans, it caught my attention.  It started as a simple tweet in May of last year, asking if any female creators were interested in putting something together, with any profits going to charity.  The interest and support was profound.  When the Kickstarter project was set up, with a goal of raising 25,000 dollars in a month, I don’t think anyone was prepared for it to reach the goal in 19 hours, or for the project to gain more than four times its goal by the end of that 30 days.  But I think this speaks to a real desire in the comic community (including and perhaps especially among males) to hear from women.

    It’s a handsome volume, well crafted and published by IDW.  Right off, there’s the story of its creation and an introduction to Renae De Liz (source of the tweet) the project manager and the assistant project manager, Laura Morley.  And you get a sense of the format, where you’ll see the creators’ bios, helpful hints from professionals, etc.

    And then it’s right into things with the first story.  As is the nature of anthologies, the art and writing are very uneven in tone, style, and skill; perhaps more so here because this project is specifically designed to include such a wide spectrum of contributors.  Some of my favorites are The Spinster by Ming Doyle and Jordie Bellaire (total classic pulp), I’m Not Omni Girl! By Lauren Burke and Megan Brennan (Buffy-like high school problems), In Every Heart a Masterwork by Gail Simone and Jean Kang (feels like real-world child raising stuff), Everwell by Jody Houser, Adriana Blake & Fiona Staples (a classic folk tale type story), Pink Elephants by Ellen T. Crenshaw (a kid has trouble sleeping), and The New Adventures of Queen Elizabeth I by Christianne Benedict (she has the proportional strength of a frog).  Oh, and Super Teen Slumber Party!! By Eleni Ladd, Kalyssa Ladd, Kelsie Ladd, and Samara Ladd was a fun one from the young kids.  Also, Renae De Liz and Nei Ruffino’s story about Lady Power Punch is kinda awesome.

    One of my favorite parts of the whole thing is the Women of the Past segment, exploring some of the pioneering work of women like Tarpe Mills, writer and artist of Miss Fury, who predated Wonder Woman, and Rose O’Neill creator of the Kewpies among many other things.  Now I need to track down more of their work, especially Tarpe Mills.

    Check out this book.  It’s got a good spirit, with lots of positive and supportive advice and encouragement for authors and artists.  And I think the community effort and support is genuinely heartening.  I hope it sends a message to publishers, to general readers, and to women artists that women are a valued voice in comics.  Forget the idea that comics are for kids, that they’re for boys, and that men don’t enjoy stuff created by women.  Finishing this on the morning of the first meeting of a graphic novel reading group, which was half male and half female felt like perfect timing, too.

Womanthology: Heroic
Authors: Renae De Liz, etc.
Artists: Kelly Thompson, etc.
Publisher: IDW
ISBN: 978-1613771471
Pages: @320

-Matt

Dork Art: Star Trek Hive #1

Did you know that Star Trek - Next Generation showrunner Brannon Braga is writing a Borg comic for IDW?  Me neither.  But here's the cover for issue numero uno.  And I love it.  Don't think I'll be reading it, but this is a treat.

--Brad

Matt’s Week in Dork! (5/13/12-5/19/12)

     Got an unusual amount of comic reading in this week.  Not a lot of movie, and those mostly at the end of the week.

Pippi Longstocking:  Dubbing.  Bad dubbing.  I imagine this would be a charming children’s film if it weren’t for the absolutely awful dubbing.  It sounds like all the children and all the women are voiced by the same woman.  And I think the men may all be by the same guy.  It has pretty good production design and the story is fun.  But I just couldn’t get past the terrible voice work.  A young kid might still enjoy it, if he/she is too young to notice how bad the audio is.  It eventually becomes somewhat interminable.

The Fury:  Psychics and spies, man.  You can’t trust ‘em.  After all the psychedelic drugs, government betrayals, and scientific advancements of the mid 20th Century, pseudoscience and hucksterism became pretty commonplace.  And science fiction, especially movies, took it up with a passion.  Along with the rise of religious based horror movies like The Exorcist there was a rise of this sort of pseudoscience horror films like Firestarter, Scanners, Spontaneous Combustion, and this, among many others.  I think there was a genuine feeling that we as humans were changing dramatically, awakening psychically.  Of course, it’s all bunk, but it made for some pretty cool movies.  I do love a good conspiracy story, and psychic powers give it a little something extra.  Kirk Douglass is pretty cool in this one, too.  Honestly, the movie goes on a bit too long.  But it’s not bad.

Alien:  A slow-burn, classic monster movie with post-Star Wars, lived-in future setting, Alien stands as not just a great science fiction film or a great horror film.  It’s a great film.  Exceptionally well crafted, it balances scares and gore with a fantastic cast of believable, likable characters.  When bad things happen, you care.  You want these people to do OK, because they’re just like you.  The effects still look good 30 years on.  The creature design is one of the most iconic in film.  The music, the direction, the acting are all top notch.  This is a classic.

Aliens:  Totally different in tone, scope, and style, this James Cameron follow-up to Alien is a grand, balls-out action movie with lots of quotable lines, colorful if not especially well developed characters, cool tech, and lots of thrills.  Roving hoards of alien soldiers rampage through dark, cluttered hallways as humans try desperately to stay alive and escape.  For a long time, I said I love both Alien and Aliens, for different reasons.  In recent years, I’ve realized that for me, though lots of fun and very cool, Aliens is not as good a film.  It’s solid.  It more than gets the job done.  But in the grand scheme of cinema history, I don’t think it stands the test as well.  That said, still a totally awesome flick, and an interesting sequel.  A must see for action sci-fi fans.

Tracker:  After loosing everything during the Boer War, a weary South African (Ray Winstone) travels to New Zealand looking for…something.  Returning home, a Maori (Temuera Morrison) whaler seeks something as well.  A pursuit through the wilderness ensues, with each man learning of the other, and themselves.  This is one of those classic ‘men’ movies like they made in the 60s and 70s, about loss, honor, shame, redemption, dignity, and respect.  Shot like a classic Western, it feels a bit out of time, but not at all in a bad way.

London Boulevard:  Bad guy Colin Farrell is fresh out of the pen and looking to change his life’s direction.  But you know, they keep pulling you back in, criminals do.  He tries to go straight, working for a reclusive actress, but beastly criminal overlord Ray Winstone is having none of that.  Like a lot of British films, much of the actual violence is off screen or less explicit/graphic, but there is an intense dread (perhaps caused by this very thing) that permeates the film.  A solid UK crime film, stylish without being style driven, which can be a problem in British movies these days.  Great soundtrack.  If you have a problem with accents, especially the London lower class types, you might need subtitles.

Night Call Nurses:  What the crap, man?  The 70s were weird.  The tone is all over the place.  The encounter group strip sequence is all kinds of sketchy.  Creepy stalkers.  Bad ADR.  Prowling Dick Miller.  And so much strange social semi-consciousness.  Touchy feely (literally) psychology is downright icky.  And that wacky flasher.  He’s so sweet.  Thank goodness there’s also a transvestite psycho killer.  And for the record, a pill-poppin,’ motor-mouthed redneck might not be the best choice to drive a get-away vehicle.  I do miss those natural women of the 70s, though.

Candy Stripe Nurses:  “Even the streakers move better than that!”  Young women get into the sex-charged world of candy striping.  It’s pretty much just wall to wall sex, with dashes of violence, drugs, and rock n’ roll to spice things up.  And then they go to the sex clinic and things really get out of hand.  What’s weird is that in spite of my hatred of the so called pixie cut, the girl who has one in this movie is adorable.  She has an charm that shines through in pretty much every scene.  The Frank Zappa looking rocker is a trip.  And the whole search for a witness subplot takes things in some weird directions.  Dick Miller heckling some basketball players is a highlight.

    Waking up Sunday morning, after the madness of Shat Attack V, Brad, John, and I kept things going with a few episodes of the Star Trek animated series.  The show has some real problems.  The animation isn’t good.  The voice work is spotty.  And some episodes are crap.  But, being animated, they’re able to carry ideas further, and generally do grander concepts.

    Keeping the Shatner/Trek thing going, Brad, Ben, and I watched Balance of Terror, the first episode to feature the Romulans.  I like the Romulans more in the original series, where they’re dignified and dangerous, not the shifty back-stabbers of Next Gen.  Then Ben and I watched a childhood favorite of mine, Devil in the Dark, with the very alien Horta.

    A bunch of us went out to see The Avengers.  It was my second time seeing it, the other three’s first.  Enjoyed by all.  On my second go, I found a few new fun bits.  Excellent popcorn entertainment.  It may be a bit over done with Scarlett Johansson in a catsuit.  But worse things could happen.

    Knocked out a couple more episodes of Charlie’s Angels, which is sadly not keeping me as excited.  Season one was so much fun, but season two doesn’t have the magic.  It’s OK.  Just not as good.

    I read the first issue of Boom! Studio’s new series Higher Earth by Sam Humphries.  Not too much happens (a lot of action with little story), but it does introduce a potentially interesting setting involving multiple Earths.  The art by Francesco Biagini isn’t bad and the final image in the issue makes me want to see what happens next.

    I followed that up with the Free Comic Book Day double of Serenity and Star Wars.  Both stories were written by Zack Whedon.  They’re fine, very brief, self contained tales.  The Star Wars art by Davide Fabbri is pretty good.  But I really, really didn’t like the Fabio Moon work on Serenity.  I would love to see Serenity continue as an ongoing comic or something.  But I sure as heck wouldn’t want to see it drawn by Moon.  There are a couple other little tidbits in the issue; glimpses of other Dark Horse projects.  Alabaster, by Caitlin R. Kiernan interests me not at all.  But Brian Wood’s The Massive seems like it has potential.  I’ll be curious to see what it looks like when it actually comes out.

    “What hath mad science wrought?!”  Atomic Robo is one of those comics that I just know I should be reading, but for whatever reason, I’m not.  It’s kind of like a more light hearted Hellboy, with lots of retro-science fiction stuff.  Reading the Free Comic Book Day issue reminded me I should really grab the first trade.  Also included were short teasers for NeoZoic, which seems like it could be a cool idea, but didn’t really pique my interest, and Bonnie Lass, which wasn’t even a little bit interesting to me and has dreadful art.

    While I was on a kick of reading stapled together comics, I dipped back into some of the New 52 first issues I hadn’t read.  Green Lantern: New Guardians was up, and it was OK.  It’s a Kyle Rayner centered series I guess, so…well, meh.  I am curious what the deal is with what happens in the issue.  I don’t know if it’s enough to pick up the trade or not, but maybe.  Tyler Kirkham’s art isn’t especially memorable, but it gets the job done.

    Following that, I read Teen Titans, a totally forgettable bunch of ho-hum.  The great thing about the Teen Titans is that it takes characters I don’t care about, and makes young versions of them.  Because EVERYONE likes to see younger versions of characters.  Like with the Star Wars prequel movies.  I always wanted to see a child version of Darth Vader and Boba Fett.  Didn’t you?  Kid Flash?  Wonder Girl?  F this comic.  How do you make me like the Justice League even less?  Make them all teenagers.

    And I read Batman, which was pretty much the same-old same-old for the Bat.  Dark, dark, dark.   Brood, brood, brood.  The artwork is OK.  But like so much Batman, it feels like they’re just going over all the same stuff yet again.  I want to like Batman more than I do.  I think he can be a genuinely interesting character (see: Batman Begins).  But it seems there’s some unwillingness to really DO anything with him that hasn’t been done a dozen or more times before.  I’ll be skipping the trades of this one.  But I imagine if you’re normally into reading Batman, there’s plenty to like, since it appears to be the same thing you’ve been enjoying for years.

    All Star Western’s first issue was up next.  I dig the idea of Jonah Hex, but I never really read any of his comics.  I’ve liked when he’s shown up in the various cartoons.  And I didn’t totally hate the movie (though it is pretty awful).  Plus, with my getting hooked on Red Dead Redemption a couple years ago (during my awesome Western month), I’ve just got a general hankering for some grim Western action.  Bringing a classic DC Western character into early Gotham is an interesting choice.  I don’t know if it’s a good one.  The plot of this comic feels pretty much like From Hell, if Eastwood’s Man With No Name were the central character.  There’s a Mason-like secret society, murdered whores, bumbling cops, and all the usual.  The team-up with Dr. Arkham (obviously, the guy the asylum is named for) could be really cool, but I have a strong feeling it’s going to get botched.  Plus, the fact that he’s drawn to look like a raving maniac in most panels makes me think it’s going to be one of those “what a twist!!!” endings where he’s the real killer or something like that.  It’s intriguing enough that I might consider reading it in trade.  We’ll see.

    Now, here’s a random one.  I read a ‘Marvel One-Shot’ called Thor: Man of War, written by comic golden boy Matt Fraction.  I’ve never been much of a Thor fan, though I enjoyed the new movie.  I feel like this is supposed to be a sort of origin story.  Mostly it’s just Thor being combative and Odin wanting to slap him down.  The art is pretty good, plenty dramatic.  I don’t know enough about the overall Thor comic mythology to catch any references, so I don’t know if it has anything extra for fans.  But it was a decent story, and it might make me want to read more, depending one who was involved and where the story might go.

    Heck, why not follow that up with another Thor comic?   So I did.  Once again, Matt Fraction is on the scene with Thor: Ages of Thunder.  This is a far more grand and mythological story with titanic battles between gods and frost giants.  Thor feels kinda like Conan here, or like, well Thor of mythology.  The art is fittingly wide screen, with panels sometimes stretching across both pages, and lots of almost painterly images.  Considering the last page has a ‘to be continued in…,’ I don’t’ think the folks at Marvel quite get what a ‘one-shot’ is.  Or, I don’t get what they’re doing.  Still, it works fairly well on its own.  Am I gonna have to find a Thor trade to read?  Probably not.  But maybe.

    One more Thor issue.  This time, Thor: The Truth of History written and drawn by Alan Davis.  The book looks and feels more “comic booky” than the other two I read.  Less mythological.  Still, it’s a fun kind of goofy tale that reaches back to ancient Egypt.  Thor is a pretty crazy character to have in the Marvel universe.  Actually, really crazy.

    For a change of pace, I read the first issue of IDW’s post 2009 movie Star Trek comic.  I guess there’s nothing wrong with it.  It’s fairly well written and the art isn’t bad.  But shoehorning the plot from my personal favorite original series episode, Where No Man Has Gone Before into the new universe feels all kinds of wrong.  This timeline is too different to revisit stories, or at least to revisit them in much the same way they were originally done.  I wouldn’t mind them working in Gary Mitchell and Lee Kelso, or Elizabeth Dehner for that matter.  But the way it’s done doesn’t sit right with me.  And as it looks like it’ll be sticking pretty slavishly to the plot points of the episode, I don’t feel any particular desire to read on.

    Another of DC’s New 52 first issues down with Men of War #1.  The updating of Sergeant Rock doesn’t do anything for me.  Rock, like Jonah Hex, is too connected to his era.  When I think Sgt. Rock, I think the Second World War, not modern combat.  And nothing in the first issue captured my interest.  The art is fine and the writing seems OK.  Just not my cup of tea.

    Then on to another New 52, Blackhawks.  The art in this is just too anime for my taste, and very little actually happens in the issue.  No interesting characters or plotlines appear in the first issue.  And while I always dug the old comic (what very little of it I ever read), this one doesn’t appeal to me at all.  Frankly, the dialog feels kind of like something out of Claremont’s X-Men…and that ain’t good.  Not as bad, by any means.  But along those lines.

    And, why not.  #1 of The Flash.  Now, here’s a character I’ve just never cared for.  I watched the TV show that came out in the post Tim Burton Batman days, but mostly because I had a crush on Amanda Payes from her time on Max Headroom.  But in comics, meh.  And I never much cared for his various appearances in the cartoons, either.  This issue seems like a good jumping off point if the character interests you at all.  It leaves you with a good ‘huh?’ moment, and a potentially good mystery.  But I still don’t care about The Flash.  The art is a little uneven, sometimes quite nice, others not.

    Finally, the last of the New 52 first issues Brad and/or I picked up, Wonder Woman.  The art is OK and the writing pretty good.  There could be a pretty good story being set up.  But, it could easily become hackneyed if the writer isn’t careful.  Wonder Woman is one of those characters I’ve always wanted to like, but have been given very little reason to do so, and much more not to.  So, I hope Brian Azzarello is going to bring the goods.

    All this comic reading got me rummaging through some boxes, where I came up with a bunch of Free Comic Book Day issues from last year that I didn’t read.  Not to mention my haul from SPX, which I picked at, but didn’t read a great deal of.  First off the pile was Green Lantern: Special Edition.  It was a piece of some larger ‘Secret Origin’ story, which basically just told the Lantern’s origin story, with an added detail about Abin Sur’s final flight.  Then there’s some teaser for their ‘Flashpoint’ story, which I gather was designed to set the stage for the New 52.  Not much of anything interesting in this issue, at least, not for John Q. Public (read: me).

-Matt