Author Archives: Doc

EYG Comic Cavalcade #11

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April 16, 2023

I’m not sure why this is the case, but it seems as if I like DC Comics’ future/Elseworlds type stories more than I like Marvel ones. The stories in Marvel that are non-continuity (outside of the What If? title) always bug me, but the DC ones does not bother me at all.

For example, for the Comic Cavalcade #11, I have read the Swamp Thing: Green Hell Black Label series. It is clearly a story of a possible future and I found it interesting. I do not feel as if a Marvel book in the same vein would pique my curiosity as this did.

I wonder if the Marvel continuity means more to me since DC has rebooted its continuity multiple times over the years. For better or worse, everything that happens in Marvel, stays.

It is an intriguing thought. Still all of the X-Men futures just do not matter to me. Maybe there have been too may of them. I remember loving Future Imperfect with Maestro/Hulk.

Either way, I’m kicking off #11 with Swamp Thing.

Swamp Thing: Green Hell #1-3. Written by Jeff Lemire with art by Doug Mahnke and Shawn Moll. I have never been a huge fan of Swamp Thing, but I have not read much of anything featuring him either. This was very good. I have been loving much of Jeff Lemire’s work lately and this fits in perfectly. I missed out on #1 and then I had seen #2 & #3 in the back issue section at Comic World so I picked them up and searched for #1, which I got at Amazon. These Black Label books have been pretty interesting at DC and the future world tale does not bother me. This had some great storytelling and the art was excellent.

Middlewest #9. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Abel has a name for the thing on his chest. It was the Heart of the Storm and he is trying to find a way to get it taken off him. Looking for answers, Abel and Fox arrive at the Nowak village with the few remaining Nowaks. The Nowak sent them to see Nokoyuna (and how cool this thing looked).

Nocterra #2. Written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Tony S. Daniel. Issue #2 is every bit as great as issue #1 was. Maybe even better because there was less world building required and we could just start building suspense and stakes. Blacktop Bill is the name of the all black creature from the end of #1 and he is a bad ass. I continue to love this book so far.

X-Men #21. “Lord of the Brood Part Three“. Written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by Stefano Caselli. The X-Men continue their battle against the Brood, and it seems as if Scott and Jean are coming down on opposite sides of the fence. Jean is helping Broo set up a colony for the Brood that he can still control via the hive mind and Scott is heading off to join up with the fight Captain Marvel is carrying out in her series.

Sleeping Beauties #4-5. Based on the novel by Stephen King and Owen King. Adapted by Rio Youers with art from Alison Sampson. The Aurora sleeping disease is sweeping the nation and some have decided that trying to burn the cocoon off is a good idea. Things are getting crazier by the minute. There is also a woman in the prison who seems to be immune and able to sleep. That info is causing a ton of strife.

The Silver Coin #9. “The Dancer.” Written by Vita Ayala and drawn by Michael Walsh. This issue finds a crooked cop in possession of the coin and he has to chase after a little girl who witnessed him setting a fire in a building. This is another tragic story with some of humanities worst people. The end of this one was pretty satisfying.

The Ambassadors #2. Written by Mark Millar with art by Karl Lerschl. We meet one of the newest selections for the superhero team, Codename India. He has been given powers over gravity. We get to meet him before he is selected, after he wound up being shot by some terrorists. So far there is not much story, but there are some interesting character development going on.

Newburn #5. “Chapter Five: Luck Ran Out” Written by Chip Zdarsky and drawn by Jacob Phillips. Newburn is in jail? How did that happen? I am not sure how I feel about this issue. Newburn is in prison undercover but what he does is kind of questionable. Is Newburn the guy to root for in this book?

Black Cloak #4. Written by Kelly Thompson and with art by Meredith McClaren. Phae and Pax go to see the mermaids and discover who is behind the murder. The problem is, they have no evidence and that makes it practically impossible. We discover the background of why Phae was exiled as well. The first half of the book was a bit slow, but I found it pick up in the second half. It continues to be a fascinating book.

Cocaine Bear: The True Story

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Found this documentary on Peacock today as I was looking around for other things to watch and I thought it would be a fun doc. I enjoyed the weird and mostly fictionalized film Cocaine bear from February this year. I did kn0w that it was based on a true story, and, after viewing this documentary, it was even more apparent that there was very little true within that “based on.”

While it was true that the bear had consumed some cocaine from a duffle bag that had been tossed from an airplane, that is where the similarities ended. In real life, the bear had eaten some of the cocaine and overdosed right beside the bag.

What was most interesting about this documentary was the details and story of the man who had thrown this cocaine from the airplane, and he had died after crashing to the ground when he parachuted out of the plane. He was Kentucky blueblood Drew Thornton, a former paratrooper, police officer and drug runner. When he fell to his death, Thornton was armed with a bunch of weapons, including a watch that could have come right off of James Bond, and a bag strapped to himself containing 70 pounds of cocaine, all while wearing a pair of Gucci loafers.

The doc told Thornton’s story about how he went from the high life in Kentucky to running drugs into the United States. There was still a ton of information that was not known about this tale and it only helped create more of an uncertainty of the situation.

This documentary was short and went quickly. The talking heads of the doc were all interesting and seemed knowledgeable. The doc did its best to tie everything to the cocaine bear, even showing the stuffed remains of what is claimed to be the actual cocaine bear.

Who would guess that a film about a rampaging bear high on cocaine would have a background as wild and crazy as the fiction?

3.5 stars

Matilda (1996)

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Last night, I attended our high school’s presentation of Matilda, the musical play from 2010 with songs written by Tim Minchin. The kids did exceptionally well. Of course, the movie Matilda the Musical was one of my favorite movies of 2022. All this led me to Netflix today to re-watch the original film from 1996 that had been based upon the book by Roald Dahl.

Directed by Danny DeVito, Matilda (Mara Wilson) was an unwanted young girl by her mean-spirited father Harry Wormwood (Danny DeVito), her selfish mother Zinnia Wormwood (Rhea Perlman) and her brother Michael (Brian Levinson). Matilda spent the first part of her childhood taking care of herself and learning anything she could. When she was finally sent to school, Matilda wound up in the classroom of the sweet Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz). Unfortunately, the school’s principal, Miss Trunchbull (Pam Ferris), a former Olympic athlete in hammer throw and shotput, was cruel and vicious toward the children. Trunchbull ruled with fear and violence, sending the children she wanted punished to a closet called “the Chokey.”

It had been a long time since I have see this version of Matilda, and I would not be honest if I did not say that the memory of the outstanding musical film, also currently on Netflix, did not affect my viewing of this movie. I remember a couple of times waiting for the song to start, even though I knew that there would be no singing or dancing.

Mara Wilson does a very good job as the titular character. This version spent more time with Matilda prior to her attending school and had more scenes with her mom and dad. Danny DeVito, who also was the narrator of the film, shows the rotten side of Mr. Wormwood throughout the story. Rhea Perlman stood out of the cast as the dingbat wife too. DeVito and Perlman who are married had a strong connection here.

The secondary children characters did not receive much attention here. There was the cake scene with Bruce (Jimmy Karz), but after that seminal scene, we get very little about Bruce. Matilda’s best friend Lavender (Kiami Davael) had a few cute moments, but she is there for just a touch. The children in Matilda the Musical receive much more scene time and are developed into deeper characters.

Pam Ferris was outstanding as Agatha Trunchbull, setting the bar high for the cruel bully type character. Sure, much of the film requires a great deal of suspension of disbelief, Trunchbull remains as one of the top antagonist characters in fiction.

This film does a better job at developing the telekinesis shown by Matilda. We see Matilda practicing it in several scenes before she uses it in a confrontation with Trunchbull.

Matilda (1996) is funny and develops its main characters very well, but the school scenes were not as important feeling since so much of the early film dealt with Matilda’s home life. Still, the outstanding performance by Pam Ferris put a fearful face on the challenge in the story. While I absolutely prefer the recent musical version, Matilda (1996) is a ton of fun and provides an odd tale from the mind of Roald Dahl.

Renfield

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Nic Cage as Dracula? Yes, please.

The first time I saw the trailer for this movie, I was unaware Nic Cage was in the movie and it was a shocking moment. It made my anticipation level go up.

Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) is Dracula’s familiar, who was responsible for all of the little details that keep Drac alive, including bringing him people to eat. However, after winding up in a support group for people in toxic relationships, Renfield started beginning to wish for a way out of his role. When he helps out police officer Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), he finds an inspiration to try an do it.

The standouts of this film is certainly Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult. The pair of Dracula and Renfield was excellent. Cage brought his typical Cage-ness to the role, but there is also a depth of character. Sure, there is the expected campiness, but that does not overwhelm the character or the movie. Hoult is outstanding too as he is so relatable and likeable that he is easy to cheer for.

One of my favorite aspects of Renfield was the way it used Cage and Hoult in recreating scenes from the 1931 Dracula from Universal Pictures, starring Bela Lugosi. Nicolas Cage looked just like Lugosi in several of the black-and-white scenes, and they made this film feel like a continuation of that story.

This was written by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ridley. Kirkman, of course, gave us The Walking Dead, and they gave us a film that was full of violence and gore, with blood everywhere. Though I did not notice it, I saw several reviews that stated that the CGI-blood was so prevalent but it never got on Renfield or Officer Quincy. That did not bother me, but if I were to watch it again, it might be something to notice.

The action in this movie was really fun and well choreographed. There was plenty of action that also led into the dark comedy of this movie.

I did like Awkwafina in the film, though a lot of her character’s story was not really developed. There were a bunch of things that she had to face, but none of it really seemed to make an impact. The storyline with the mob and Awkwafina’s character and the crooked police felt tossed in several points of the movie. However, Ben Schwartz as Tedward Lobo and his mother, the mob head Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh Aghdashloo) do a great job with what they are given to do.

Redfield is fun. Don’t go into it thinking that this is a serious monster movie. It is not. It has its share of silliness, but also some real thoughts about toxic relationships. Great performances from the two Nics are the key to what is happening. I had a fun time. If you like Nic Cage, this should be right up your lane.

3.8 stars

EYG Comic Cavalcade #10

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April 14, 2023

Happy Friday.

Busy week. I am still working on getting caught up on the NEW COMICS DAY books. I get a whole bunch of those on Wednesday and I have a few to finish off. I could have done a Cavalcade last night, but instead I read the series of back issues that I purchased as well this Wednesday.

I am starting to pile up with some of these independent books that I have been buying. I expect to do some special editions soon to read through these series.

Captain America: The Chosen #1-6. Written by David Morrell and drawn by Mitch Breitweiser. This series was from 2007 and I had never heard of it. Todd told me that it was good, so I decided to pick it up. I have always enjoyed Cap. This series was excellent and an easy read. However, I am not sure I enjoyed the ending. It felt like a in continuity series the entire time until the end when Cap dies. I do not remember Cap dying again and so this must have been some kind of alternate universe and I am always uncertain about those. It is a great read however.

Captain America: Cold War Alpha. “Part 1” Written by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly & Tochi Onyebuchi and art by Carlos Magno. Patrick Gleason & Alejandro Sanchez did the cover art. A new crossover event featuring Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson’s Captain Americas get together. The storylines of the double Cap series are also coming together so we get White Wolf, Ian, Dimension Z, The Outer Circle among others. I enjoyed the re-team up of Steve and Sam so I am onboard.

Guardians of the Galaxy #1. “The Massacre at Galilee IV“. Written by Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing (who were just writing the Cap: Cold War book previously) and drawn by Kev Walker. Michael Checchetto did the art for the cover. This book intrigued me. I saw the cover and thinking about the Guardians in a Western type motif was a cool idea. I was a little unsure though because of the specter of the alternate future stories. I think this is a book in continuity (at least, I am pretending it is, until I see evidence to prove it is not). The whole Groot thing was bizarre and I am curious to see where this goes.

Year Zero #5. Written by Benjamin Percy and illustrated by Ramon Rosanas. Kaare Andrews did the cover art. Finishing up this series, I really enjoyed the format of this book. The multiple stories that was taking place across the planet worked really well. So much that I went out of my way to find the Vol. 0 series and the Vol. 2 series. They arrived today and may be one of those special editions that I mentioned earlier.

X-23: Deadly Regenesis #2. “The Past Haunts Us All Part 2″. Written by Erica Schultz and drawn by Edgar Salazar. Kalman Andrasofszky is the cover artist. They continue the flashback story with Laura. Interesting enough, much of this issue was dedicated to the villain, Haymaker, and giving us a background on why Haymaker is after X-23. I like the depth of the charatcers.

Superman: Lost #2. “Kansas” Written by Priest and drawn by Carla Pagulayan. The book begins to give us background on what had happened to Superman during the time frame that he believes he was gone for 20 years. Honestly, this gave me some Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow vibes as I read it. It was fine, but it did not stand out that much. I hope it continues to improve.

Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #3. Written by Danny Lore and illustrated by Karen S. Darboe. Brielle gets to spend some time with her father, Blade. We also get more of the story behind how Blade became a daddy. This seems to be a vampire-coming-of-age tale and it has been decent so far.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #5. “Trial By Spider Part Five.” Written by Cody Ziglar and drawn b Federico Vicentini. Dike Ruan & Alejandro Sanchez did the cover art. Miles puts his life on the line to attempt to rescue his family from the dangers of the villainous Rabble. It’s a rough issue for Miles.

Moon Knight #22. “Instinct.” This issue sees the return of the Midnight Man and Tigra goes after him. This was a heavily leaning Tigra solo issue among the Moon Knight series and it was awesome. I have always been a fan of Tigra and this felt like a great time to focus on her character. There is also big time development in the ending. Good stuff continues from Moon Knight. Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Alessandro Cappuccio. Cover art by Stephen Segovia & Rachelle Rosenberg.

Fantastic Four #6. “A Shot in the Dark.” The issue before the big LGY #700 of the FF was fun. The FF try to fix their error from last issue where they unintentionally unleashed an other-dimensional bacteria that could bring about the death of the planet. Just another day for the FF. Written by Ryan North (who I have really liked on the FF. He seems to have a great grasp on these characters) and illustrated by Ivan Fiorelli. As much as I like the FF right now, I think Johnny’s mustache has got to go.

Worldtr33 #1. Written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Fernando Blanco. The new Image series written by James Tynion IV came out this week and it was something else. Like much of Tynion’s work, there is a lot going on and you need to pay close attention to the story. There were some truly shocking scenes in this issue too. I am excited to see where this heads next.

The Seasons Have Teeth #1. “Spring.” Written by Dan Watters and illustrated by Sebastian Cabrol. The cover art was done by Qistina Khalidah. The new book from Boom! Studios arrived this week and it was a beautifully looking book with some intriguing storytelling. The flashback scenes were very compelling and the world building was solid.

Captain Marvel #48. “Revenge of the Brood Part Six.” Written by Kelly Thompson and drawn by Sergio Davila. Cover art was done by Juan Frigeri & David Curiel. The battle with the Brood raged on, but there was a loss. Binary, who Carol was coming to save, wound up killed saving Carol from the Brood. I did not have a big connection to Binary so it did not make it horrible for me. Still, it was a surprising twist. There are only two more Captain Marvel issues with Kelly Thompson’s epic run.

Silver Surfer: Ghost Light #3. “Part 3: Too Much Information.” Written by John Jennings with art by Valentine DeLandro. So far, this limited series has been not been my favorite so far. There are some decent moments, but these characters have not grabbed my interest as of yet. The use of the Stranger is curious though.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #9

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April 11, 2023

New banner!

I do enjoy making these banners for the site. I had just done the blue one when I switched from Comic Catch-Up to the EYG Comic Cavalcade, but it felt like it was time for a change. So I did the new white and red version you see here now.

I am very happy with the way the new one turned out. I do plan on making new ones as the time moves on. I could also see myself doing special ones when the whole issue is a theme like I did for the Comic Catch-Up when I had the special editions featuring Something is Killing the Children, Gideon Falls or Ant Man.

With the new banner, I took pics from recent comics that I am enjoying (such as Strange Academy: Finals, Local Man), books I just discovered (Man-Eaters) or ones that I will read soon (Swamp Thing, White Savior). Spider-Boy made it on the banner too as a hot new character.

We’ll see how long this one lasts. I really do love the new banner.

Let’s get started…

Nocterra #1. Written by Scott Snyder and with art by Tony S. Daniel. I have been waiting to start into Nocterra. I had all of the issues ready to go, but truly I just was not that into starting it. I have no idea where or why I started buying this one, but I had never read any of them leading into this. However, I absolutely loved this first issue. I loved the character. I loved how they set it up. I loved the world building. The art is beautiful. The villain at the end was awesome. I found this story completely compelling and thrilling. I can’t wait to dive back into the next issues of this series.

Sleeping Beauties #3. Adapted by Rio Youers and drawn by Alison Sampson. Based on a Stephen King book, Sleeping Beauties started to pick up with this issue. I’m not sure what is going on with the animals that showed up this issue, but I am here for it. Only two more issues to go for this book.

Image! 30th Anniversary Anthology #2. Another anthology book with a bunch of short stories featuring some of the greats from Image. For the second issue in a row, my favorite of the stories was The Blizzard Part Two, by Geoff Johns. We get a bit of a monster in the story, which deals with transferring Michael to prison after he killed his son’s murderer. Some of the stories are not as compelling, but I have enjoyed much of the book.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #5. “Chapter Five: The Lake, the Trees, and the Monsters.” Written by Tom King and drawn by Bilquis Evely. I liked this issue more than I did last issue. However, it does fall into a problem I have for this character and her famous cousin. In order to create any stakes or tension, the writers have to remove (or limit or downgrade) Kara’s powers. It just feels like it is lazy writing. How many universes out there have a non-yellow sun? Why does she have to find every one?

Silver Coin #8. “Rising & Falling in America” Written by Matthew Rosenberg and drawn by Michael Walsh. I found this Silver Coin issue to be very shocking and I liked what I saw. It continued its trend of tragic circumstances falling those in possession of the cursed coin. The final few pages of this issue was just one shock after another.

Newburn #4. “Chapter Four: Bring Some Heat.” Written by Chip Zdarsky and with art by Jacob Phillips. Newburn has a new problem. The cops want to hire him to sole a murder of a cop by one of the families. This placed Newburn in a difficult position forcing him to use all of his guile to wiggle his way out.

Middlewest #6-8. Written by Skottie Young and illustrated by Jorge Corona. Abel is still in trouble. His father is in pursuit of his runaway son and Abel’s own power is out of control. This led to him being sent out of the Fair and off on his own. Well, his trusty friend fox is there too. Middlewest still has that fairy tale feel to it and I am interested in the eventual confrontation between Abel and his father because it may not be as cut and dry as it seems.

Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone (2017)

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I was on YouTube watching a video from CinemaWins called Everything Great About Everything Everywhere All At Once. I have liked that series of videos and I thought this would be a fun one to watch. Near the beginning of the video, it called attention to the actor Sunita Mani, who was on the Netflix show GLOW, and who was also in Everything Everywhere All At Once in a small role. The narrator then made a reference to another film that had been produced by the Daniels (the directors of EEAAO) called Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone. He recommended it and said that everyone should go an watch it immediately after they finished this video. I was interested so I looked to see where it could be watched. I was able to find it on one of the Amazon Prime channels, MUPI. One free 7-day trial later, I was watching the 40-minute short.

The film starred a comedy dance group called Cocoon Central Dance Team. This included Sunita Mani along with Eleanore Pienta and Tallie Medel.

It is a challenging film to try to explain. The plot synopsis from IMDB gives the idea, “Beach balls. Doctor boners. Farts. Snow. This film, starring Cocoon Central Dance Team, just might have invented its own genre: comedy-dance-sketch-fantasy.”

There is not any real plot to this film. It is a series of vignettes strung together. There were dance numbers in snow, comedy bits and even some musical performances. It was a wild trip. Filled with a ton of creativity, totally unafraid to be weird and original.

The dance routines were very funny. The Cocoon Central Dance Team had amazing facial expressions that made their routines all the funnier.

Written and directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Rachel Wolther, this movie was forty minutes of bizarre scenes and a good time. If you are looking for a tightly woven story, this is not for you. However, if you are willing to let your mind wander and laugh at the insanity of the whole thing, you may just enjoy Snowy Bing Bongs Across the North Star Combat Zone.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #8

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April 9, 2023

I was looking over my graphic novels this morning, I spotted one that I had not read. It was Man-Eaters, the first volume which reprinted the series issues #1-4. Then I saw the writer on the spine. It was Chelsea Cain.

I loved Chelsea Cain. There have been two major feeling of betrayal I have felt from Marvel Comics over the years I have bought comics from them. The first was when it was revealed that Ben Reilly was actually not a clone of Peter Parker, but he was the actual Peter Parker. The Peter Parker that I had ALWAYS watched since I was reading Spider-Man comics, my absolutely favorite super hero, was the real clone. A fake. That is, to this day, the worst moment I have ever had while reading comics.

The other moment of betrayal was when I found out that Mockingbird, which included issues 1-8, was being canceled. Mockingbird is one of my favorite series of all-time and I felt crushed when Mockingbird was gone. And then to hear a lot of the negative aspect behind the end of the series was very disappointing.

Chelsea Cain had become one of my favorite writers. Then she did a mini-series called Spy Island that I picked up simply because she was the writer. She had elevated things for me where I will purchase a book solely because her name is on it. I know there are people who do not like her work because she is such a strong voice for feminism, but I find her funny, extremely creative and willing to take the comic genre in different ways.

Back to this morning. So I took the graphic novel Man-Eaters Vol. 1 and read it through. It was wild story of teen girls changing into killer cats because of a virus that almost everyone on earth had contracted. It was so awesome with a ton of metaphors and the format including amazing advertisements for the different products that kept the transformations at bay. They even had a long section (probably issue #4) that gave us background info and reports and medical details. It was more of an informational pamphlet than a comic book. It was glorious.

I am excited to see the rest of the series that I went to eBay to find immediately. I have stated that independent comics are more about the story/writer than the characters. This is a perfect example. If I see Chelsea Cain’s name on a comic, I am buying it.

The rest of this issue’s books:

Dead Day #1-5. Written by Ryan Parrott and art by Evgeniy Bornyakov. There comes a day when the dead rise from their graves and head out to try and go back to spend time with their loved ones. When Brandon meets a beautiful teen girl who was a member of the Revivalists, he and his friend Zack sneak out to meet up with her on Dead Day. I liked this self-contained story about Dead Day and how it affected Brandon’s family. At the core of this book is the family aspect and that was why it worked.

Middlewest #5. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Mike Huddleston did the cover. Abel keeps trying to find someone at the carnival that would help him become normal again. Meanwhile, his father, who we keep seeing how abusive he could be, is searching for Abel. Middlewest continues to be a beautiful book to look at.

Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker #5. Written by Greg Pak and drawn by Manuel Garcia. The cover art was done by Carlo Pagulayan, Jason Paz & Chris Sotomayor. I am so grateful that this one is done. Did not enjoy the finale of the series that I did not like. Just another throwaway alt-future tale.

Silver Coin #7. “Tzompanco” Written by Ram V. and drawn by Michael Walsh. This issue of the anthology horror series that follows a mysterious silver coin found its way back to Vegas and into the hands of a gambler who did not have a lot of success, until now. This was another interesting story in this series, but not one that I will remember a month from now.

X-Men: Unforgiven #1. “Cure for Pain.” Written by Tom Seeley and drawn by Sid Kotian. Kyle Holz & Dan Brown did the cover art. The team called the Forgiven, a group of vampires, team up with the X-Men to take on a vampire by the name of the Curator. This Unforgiven series of books (previously with Spider-Man) are okay, but I have not been able to really get invested in the characters of the Forgiven yet. Next issue is Captain America so we’ll see how that goes.

Newburn #3. “Chapter Three: We’ve All Lost Men” Newburn is on the case of an apparent serial killer that is targeting men from the different crime families. This was probably my favorite issue of Newburn as of yet. I really enjoyed this self-contained story that was wrapped up within the issue.

Year Zero #1-4. Written by Benjamin Percy and drawn by Ramon Rosanas. I have been meaning to read this limited series for awhile now (and then I realized that I am missing the final issue #5). I hope it is somewhere in the piles, because I thought this was great. I especially enjoyed how the story bounced around the planet as the zombie apocalypse was breaking out. We spent time with a long list of different characters and saw how they reacted to what was happening. Got to find number five.

Image! 30th Anniversary Anthology #1. Cover design by Michael Busuttil. I had bought issue #8 of this series recently to see a short story featuring World Tr33, a short intro to the upcoming James Tynion IV book. There were a bunch of shorts in that book that were like part 8 and such. SO I went after the earlier of this anthology series. Issue one had several fun shorts in it, my favorite probably being Geoff John’s The Blizzard.

Ghost Rider #13. “My Brother’s Keeper” Written by Benjamin Percy and drawn by Cory Smith. Björn Barends did the cover art. We get some info on what is going on with Danny Ketch. Johnny Blaze and Talia is on his trail to try and understand why Danny is doing the horrendous things that he is doing.

Rogue & Gambit #2. “Throw it Girl.” Written by Stephanie Phillips and drawn by Carlos Gomez. Steve Morris did the art on the cover. Rogue and Gambit are in search of the missing teleporter Manifold while Black Panther is trying to bring in Gambit and Rogue to question them about the same thing. Plus, the mutants’ powers are going all wonky. So far, this has been an entertaining couple of issues. I have always liked the pairing of Gambit and Rogue so this worked well for me.

Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones #2. Written by Emily Kim and drawn by Kei Zama. Cover art was by David Nakayama. Spider-Gwen and Gwen Ock battle SandGwen in an attempt to get the whole clone thing under control. I am having terrible flashbacks back to the Clone Saga. I’m not sure why all Spider-titles need their own clone, but Gwen is an enjoyable character and she had some nice interaction with Gwen Ock. The Ghost-Spider outfit is just one of the best costumes designs in comics.

Chupa

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I love those urban legends/mysterious creature stories. I can’t get enough about Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster. One of the creatures that I do not know as much about is the Chupacabra. Known as a “Mexican goat sucker” the Chupacabra has several iterations over the years. Now, a new Netflix film puts a young Chupacabra front and center.

Young Alex (Evan Whitten) was sent by his mother to spend some time with his grandfather (Demián Bichir) and his cousins in Mexico. Alex was depressed, dealing with the loss of his father. While on his grandfather’s farm, he discovered a baby Chupacabra hiding in the barn.

The youngling Chupacabra was being hunted by a scientist Richard Quinn (Christian Slater), who had led to the little animal being separated from its mother. Alex and the family have to put their lives in danger to try and help reunite Chupa with his family.

Okay, here is the thing with this movie. It’s dumb. The story is silly. Demián Bichir’s character is a former lucha libre wrestler and spends a bunch of the film dressed as such. This movie has a definite 1980s style feel to it. It is not terrible. It just is not that good.

There is a sweetness to the story. Alex and Chupa are fine together. Demián Bichir’s character is losing his memory, but the film does not treat that in a serious manner.

The film is a weird combination of a “boy and his dog” type of film and lucha libre wrestling. The tone was all over the place.

I shouldn’t say this because I do think they did the best they could and I do not want to be negative to them, but the kid actors in this film did not feel as if they were incredibly skilled. I would say that they were competent, and they were fine for this movie. They just were not going to be able to extend the plot much more than it was.

The movie was shallow in plot and character, but heartwarming at times. They did introduce some interesting ideas in the story, but they rarely paid off any of them. Chupa was a cute creature design, but the CSI effects were, at best, okay.

For a Netflix family film, Chupa was fine. I definitely have seen worse on the streaming platform. Unfortunately, most everything was surface level and lacking any true depth. It is a decent family film to watch together some Saturday night, but I would not necessarily seek it out.

2.7 stars

Air

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Ben Affleck returned to the director’s chair with the new biopic that revealed the true story of how Michael Jordan wound up signing with the Nike Basketball division of the shoe company. This led to the creation of the Air Jordan shoe line, with a celebration of capitalism front and center.

It was 1984 and the shoe company Nike was struggling in a distant third place among the giant show companies. They had Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a basketball expert looking to recruit the best possible NBA athletes to Nike. Things had not been going well as the top draft picks were signing with either Adidas or Converse.

Sonny was unhappy with the amount of funds available for him to do his job and was not a fan of the draft picks that could be available. Sonny came up with an idea to pursue one player instead of spreading out the money on several players and customize the show around that athlete. The athlete? Michael Jordan.

Putting all of his eggs in one basket was risky, so Sonny had to convince Nike CEO Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) that this was the way they needed to go.

Ignoring protocol, Sonny took a trip to North Carolina to stop by Michael Jordan’s parents’ place unannounced. James (Julius Tennon) and Deloris (Viola Davis) Jordan met with Sonny and would end up giving him a chance, despite Michael’s stated opposition to Nike.

There was a lot of awesomeness to this story. Honestly, the film does an excellent job of creating suspense, despite everyone knowing the end result with Jordan joining up with Nike. I really wanted to see HOW it happened because they did a great job of building that uncertainty in the storytelling.

Matt Damon did a fantastic job as Sonny, leading the ensemble cast with his dogged determination for the fledgling Nike. Damon delivered some amazing monologues throughout the film, including one at the meeting with the Jordans. Affleck’s character was full of quirks and he provided a excellent job of showing them. Viola Davis is always awesome, but she was not in this movie as much as I might have liked. Jason Bateman was here too as Rob Strasser, director of marketing, and his relationship with Sonny was shown by a group of just excellent scenes. There is a scene where Rob chastised Sonny for his risk-taking by speaking about the daughter that Rob rarely got to see. The whole ensemble cast does wonderful work in this movie.

Ben Affleck returned as a quality director after a few missteps over the last few years. He allows this film to breathe properly and to develop this story in an effective manner. As I said, despite knowing the eventual result, it was still a captivating story to discover how Michael Jordan wound up with his name on the Nike shoe.

Michael Jordan does not appear, and, truly, even the actor playing the rookie NBA player was shot mostly from behind or blocked by something or other. Jordan’s visage was not truly needed since this story was more about the people involved in the Nike process than the talent.

I have never been a fan of Michael Jordan as I have a few gripes about how he was treated as a talent. However, there is no denying that he is arguably one of, if not the, greatest player in NBA history and his name recognition made Nike the leader in shoe sales. Air was entertaining and thrilling, and the end may even bring about a goose bump or two.

4.3 stars

Paint

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Owen Wilson is both figuratively and literally ‘no Bob Ross.’

Literally, he is an actor that is playing a role that is literally not Bob Ross. He plays a character named Carl Nargle.

Figuratively, though he may be based on the iconic TV painter, Carl Nargle is simply not even close to the man who was Bob Ross.

When I first heard about this movie, I had thought that it was maybe a biopic dealing with the extremely intriguing life of Bob Ross. There would be plenty of areas to mine if that was the track this film had taken. However, that was not the intent of this movie. This was, at best, a parody of Bob Ross and a poor one at that.

Carl Nargle was a TV painter at a small PBS station whose best days were behind him. When the station manager Tony (Stephen Root) looks to increase ratings, he hired a second painter, Ambrosia (Ciara Renée) which caused stress and jealousy for Carl.

There was just not much that I liked about this movie. I always appreciate the work of Owen Wilson. I believe that he did everything that he could with what he was given, and any positives that I can attribute to this movie rests on his shoulders. However, there was not enough to elevate this weak script into an enjoyable experience.

I found very little funny, even though the film had intended it to be. Characters were one-dimensional and did things that were both inconsistent and illogical.

There was not much of a storyline in the film, and, what there was, was remarkably simple, lacking any true depth.

In what could have been something much better, Paint was lacking in just about every way. No happy little accidents here.

1.3 stars

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

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Super Mario Brothers are one of the greatest video games of the last forty years. Mario is a beloved iconic character. Yet, some of the appearances of Mario in the movies were lacking much.

So there was hope that the new animated movie with the Super Mario Bros. would present this in the best manner possible. The Rotten Tomatoes score was lower than I had expected, which was depressing.

Plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and his little brother Luigi (Charlie Day) wind up falling through a pipe and into a magical world called the Mushroom Kingdom. Separated, Mario is taken to Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) in an attempt to ask for help to find Luigi.

Meanwhile, the monstrous turtle Bowser (Jack Black) is preparing an assault on the mushroom Kingdom in an effort to get Princess Peach to accept his marriage proposal.

I thought this film, from the animation company Illumination, was a solid film. It may not be the greatest animated film we get this year, but it was charming, fun and cleverly written.

One of my favorite parts of the film was how cleverly the writers worked the game bits into the world. Early in the movie, while still in Brooklyn, Mario runs through a construction site much like he would have done in the actual video game. It was a fun way to include that in the film. I also enjoyed how they incorporated the power-ups among other things.

There was a lot of controversy over Chris Pratt’s voice (aka lack of accent) in trailers. The film addressed that immediately in a realistic and reasonable way in my opinion and I did not miss the hackneyed Italian accent. I found Pratt to have done an admirable job. Jack Black, in particular, was outstanding in his voice over acting. I did not even recognize his voice as Bowser until he was singing. Jack Black was probably my favorite part of the movie. Seth Rogan’s work as Donkey Kong and Keegan Michael-Key’s Toad both enriched the characters and brought them to life well.

The animation was colorful and excellent. It was the typical computer generated animation that Illumination has used in its other animated fare over the years. It very much worked in this style.

The story itself was kind of slight and did not bring much more to it than the very basic narrative structure. That is not a terrible thing. The film does know what it is trying to accomplish and it does so well.

While I enjoyed all of the music choices (because they are all great songs), to be honest, the songs chosen felt very overused. Songs such as Holding Out for a Hero, Take On Me, Thunderstruck, and Mr. Blue Sky are some personal favorites, but they have been used many times in other movies making them feel less special. However, jack Black’s Peaches is masterful.

The final act of the movie was truly messy. It was a giant bombastic fight that felt out of place as with the rest of the movie. It should have been toned down some to make it more relatable to the audience. I am sure the children in the audience enjoyed the rapid fire action though and I have seen worse third act throw downs.

You could do much worse on an Easter weekend with the family than going to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It is not going to be the best animated movie of the year, but it is far from the worst. It adapts the game effectively and provided some awesome animation and some fun, classic characters.

3.5 stars

EYG Comic Cavalcade #7

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April 5, 2023

Spring break has sprung. Yes, it is just a couple of days around a weekend, but it is that time of year where any break from school is welcomed.

Of course, yesterday was NEW COMIC BOOK DAY at Comic World and I picked up a cavalcade of comics to read. Most of them were pretty decent and continues my enjoyment of the medium. A couple of series came to a close and there were a few new issues.

One in particular.. Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

I also learned how to determine if it is the cover A, cover B, cover C and so on with variant covers. I feel like a super spy with this knowledge.

I am Iron Man #2. “Chapter Two: The Man with the Bleeding Heart.” This may have been my favorite book of the week (top couple for sure). This Iron Man book saw Tony searching the ocean’s bottom for a radioactive asteroid with the help of a giant, mutated, mind-reading sardine. Yes, I said that right. It sounded silly, but I’ll be danged if it wasn’t a awesome read. Congrats to Murewa Ayodele, who wrote this story that was so compelling with a giant fish and the art by Dotun Akande worked beautifully.

Love Everlasting #6. Written by Tom King and drawn by Elsa Charretier. Joan Peterson has gotten so used to the routine that when something different happens, she is not sure what to do. This issue features the actual marriage of Joan to a guy whom she clearly finds ‘meh.’ Yet, the killer cowboy does not shoot her this time. What is going on?

Stillwater #18. Written by Chip Zdarsky and drawn by Ramon K. Perez. “Chapter Eighteen” brings us the finale of the Stillwater series as the conflict within Stillwater and the neighboring Coldwater comes to a head. I loved the ending of this series with the last few panels really putting a surprise exclamation point on the book. Chip Zdarsky maintains his place near the top of my favorite writers list.

Code Name Ric Flair: Magic Eight Ball #1. Written by James Haick III with art by Rafael Loueiro. Ruben Cubiles did the cover art. In this book, ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair, one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, is revealed to have had some special surgery after his infamous plane crash (which was real) and he became a special secret agent. This was pretty weird, with what seemed like a lot of stroking of Flair’s ego, but I had a lot of fun with it. My knowledge of wrestling and of Flair himself made it more enjoyable as I picked up on some of the jokes and traits that they were bringing into the story.

Amazing Spider-Man #23. Written by Zeb Wells and art by John Romita Jr. Peter finds himself back home, desperate to try and find his way back to MJ. Unfortunately, the FF and Captain America have some questions they want answered. Peter did not have the time. This is the continuation of the story about what Peter did that caused such a rift in his life and his relationships. I am still in on what is going down even if it is making me anxious.

The Approach #5. Written by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley while the art of the book was done by Jesus Hervás and Lea Caballero. This is the second series coming to an end this week with this cool Boom! Studios book wrapping up with a huge blast. Now, there are several things that were not covered or dealt with in the series and I wonder if there will be more coming from The Approach eventually. It certainly left off on a cliffhanger.

Scarlet Witch #4. Written by Steve Orlando and drawn by Sara Pichelli. Russell Dauterman did the cover art. We get a back story on Darcy Lewis, who debuted as a character in the MCU Thor movies and met up with Wanda originally during WandaVision. Here, Darcy is being pursued by Hippolyta, who became the powerhouse Scythia. A powerful pair of females battling over Darcy’s life.

Joe Fixit #4. Written by Peter David and drawn by Yildiray Çınar. I finally determined that this book was taking place during the time frame when Bruce Banner was showing the Joe Fixit personality. Perhaps it should have been obvious to me, but I had not read Hulk books during the original Joe Fixit arc. I do love this series, especially since there is such a presence of Spider-Man in the book.

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #11. Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly with the art by Carmen Carnero. Cap and the returning Invaders fought against MODOC while struggling to try to stop the Outer Circle, including Bucky Barnes. The death of the Destroyer last issue set up some major implications here. Then, at the end, Ian is reunited with his ‘father.’

Hairball #1. Script by Matt Kindt with art by Tyler Jenkins. The new Dark Horse comic that immediately gave me Stray Dogs vibes, even though it sure appeared that the black cat, called Bestie, in this series is anything but our hero. In fact, who could have guessed that the cat hairball that as coughed up would be such a powerfully gross weapon? This was a cool start to a new horror series and I am here for it.

Planet of the Apes #1. Written by David F. Walker and drawn by Dave Wachter. Cover art was by Joshua Cassara & Dean White. The first ‘official’ book under the 20th Century Studios Marvel brand, we get a book that is set after the events of the film Rise of the Planet of the Apes. When I started reading the Alien books (which will now fall under the 20th Century Studios banner as well), I really enjoyed number one, but slipped off my interest quickly. Here, even though I do like these movies, I found this comic to be…fine. Nothing that blew me away, but I was not actively hating it either. I kind of expect this will be another book that I just am not that into if I were to continue to buy it. Still, it was okay.

Spider-Man #7. “Part Seven: Spider-Genesis” Written by Dan Slott and drawn by Mark Bagley. This classic creative team has been bringing the End of the Spider-Verse saga and, to be honest, I was not overly interested. This issue debuts a mysterious new Spider character in the 616 universe, specifically one called Spider-Boy. I do find the initial design of Spider-Boy to be cool and I would like to know more about him. With Peter Parker back as the Amazing Spider-Man, I hope this one picks up.

Order & Outrage #1. Written by Jim Starlin and drawn by Rags Morales. My cover art (which was the B cover, which I now know thanks to my unofficial lesson by my friend Todd), was done by Jim Starlin. This was a book that ended up in my pull list because someone (ahem, Todd) thought I’d like it. He usually does a decent job of picking out books that I should give a go, but I just never got into this book. I like Jim Starlin but Order & Outrage just never piqued my interest. It was a beautifully illustrated book (although there may have been too many shots of a penis, just saying).

EYG Comic Cavalcade #6

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March 4, 2023

The last few days, I have been getting a few comics read here and there. As I mentioned last time, this weekend was Wrestlemania weekend so I was quite busy watching wrestling. There was some time to fill however.

Specifically, I had an oil change scheduled for Saturday morning down at Brad Deery’s Motors. I used that time to read two graphic novels that I had recently gotten on eBay. They were a couple of books that I heard discussed on the Fatman Beyond podcast with the writer Jim Krueger. There are The High Cost of Happily Ever After and The Runner.

I found The Runner as the better between the two. The Runner was a story about a man named Daniel who looked in the face of death and survived, only to have death chase after him forever. And he had to run from them.

Meanwhile, The High Cost of Happily Ever After is about a princess whose recently married husband went off to war. She is captured and tortured mentally in a chance to break her.

Both were enjoyable and I have grown to enjoy Jim Krueger’s work. Zach Brunner was the artist on both of the two graphic novels. I thought the art worked very well with each book and it created a excellent tone. There are plenty of wonderfully beautiful images in his work.

The other books I have read…

Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain #2. “Two Captains, One Country” Written by Tini

Howard and drawn by Vasco Georgiev. Erica D’Urso & Matthew Wilson did the cover art. The Captain Britain Corp arrive on the world of Captain Carter looking for that world’s Betsy Braddock. Morgan Le Fey continues to plan to try and destroy the Captain Britain Corp.

Frankenstein New World #1-4. Written by Mike Magnola, Christopher Golden and Thomas Sniegoski with art by Peter Bergting. This Dark Horse limited series featured the Frankenstein character that was from the world of Hellboy. This was a neat little series with Frankenstein and a little girl named Lilja. There was a weird end to the series, but I liked it quite a bit.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #4. “Chapter Four: Restraint, Endurance, and Passion.” And then there was Supergirl. I had liked the first three issues of this series. I know that this limited series is going to be the basis for the upcoming Supergirl movie in the James Gunn run DC Studios. Unfortunately, issue four really came off the rails for me. I was bored throughout it. I had no connection or care about anything that was happening. I was truly disappointed in this issue. I certainly hope the remainder of the issues 5-8 turn out more interesting that this one did. I believe in Tom King so I will hold hope.

Where Monsters Lie #2. Script by Kyle Starks and art by Piotr Kowalski. We return to the place where a group of serial killers have been living and the police, on a tip from a young boy who had seen some of the killers and had managed to escape, come to find them. This all just led to a massive slaughter. We are introduced to a federal agent named Connor Hayes, getting a bunch of backstory on him. I have to say that I do not trust this guy. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but there is just something about him that makes me wonder. This limited series has been fun so far.

Sabretooth & the Exiles #5. “Station Five.” Written by Victor LaValle and drawn by Leonard Kirk. Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer and Frank Martin were the artists on the cover. This limited series came to an end as Sabretooth winds up battling and joining a group of multiversal variants of himself. This one did not wrap up quite like I wanted. It turned the series into an okay one, where it could have been very solid.

Thor #32. “Blood of the Fathers Part Two” Written by Torunn Grønbekk and drawn by Juan Gedeon. Nic Klein was the artist on the cover. Another Thor story that is involved in different time lines, making it difficult to follow. It was also a book that has a cover that really kind of misleads what is going on inside. Despite a cover where we see Thor and Dr. Doom fighting, that does not happen this issue. It does seem as if it will happen next issue though so perhaps it is a bit of a set up. Still, much of this recent arc of Thor has left something to be desired.

Tetris

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I spent literally hours during college playing the video game Tetris on Nintendo. I spent so much time that I realized that I had to be careful with my video game playing or else I could lose myself in them. Tetris was easily my favorite of the games we played.

Now, a new Apple TV + film starring Taron Egerton has been released telling the story of the high stakes efforts to bring Tetris to Game Boy and spread it to the consumers of the world.

One would not believe that a story about worldwide video game rights could be as gripping as this movie was. In fact, when I first heard about Tetris being in production, I pictured those other films that deal with the game in more youthful ways. Tetris is anything but. In fact, this has much more in common with a Cold War thriller than it does with Sonic the Hedgehog or Pixels.

Based on a true story, Tetris tells the story “of how one of the world’s most popular video games found its way to players around the globe. Businessman Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) and Tetris inventor Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov) join forces in the USSR, risking it all to bring Tetris to the masses.” (IMDB)

One of the most fascinating aspects of the film was the look at the pre-fall Soviet Union and how the government kept their people in control. The use of the KGB and the surveillance of foreigners was extremely intriguing.

Henk Rogers was portrayed as an honest man and one of the few people in the film that was being above board. Taron Egerton does an excellent job in this lead role, and, even though I knew Tetris was making it out because I played it so much, I was anxious to see how it actually came about. Henk was an easy protagonist to root for and there were plenty of opposing antagonists that gave a variety of conflicts for him.

There was a feel of “Argo” about this movie, especially the escape near the end. While much of the film had been exaggerated, things added were exciting and worked very well within the context of the narrative.

Toby Jones appeared as Robert Stein, who was attempting to get the rights from the Soviets as well. Jones is always great and he disappears into the roles.

Other actors involved in important roles in Tetris included Oleg Stefan, Roger Allam, Anthony Boyle, Ayane Nagabuchi, Sofya Lebedeva, Rick Yune and Ben Miles.

This film kept my attention despite it basically being about video game rights and contracts and a solid performance helped sell the adventure. The mysterious culture and rules behind the Soviet Union kept this absorbing.

4.1 stars