Author Archives: Doc

EYG Comic Cavalcade #175

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October 20

Good day everyone. We are up to the #175 post for the EYG Comic Cavalcade. Who knew this would last so long. I feel as if I am getting close to getting this back on track to do on Saturday or Sunday. This weekend, I was busy with the October 13, but I think soon the schedule will straighten out. Monday night are never good to do these.

Books this week:

The Monster and the Wolf #1. Written, art and cover art by Mark Spears (Gold Medalist). The blind bags arrived from Kinesport this week and I was able to open all eleven books that I got. Two duplicates. I thought that was pretty good. The covers were all awesome.

Endeavour #1. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art and cover art by Marc Laming. I have been waiting for this DSTLRY book for quite a while. The Endeavour was a ship sailed by Captain Cook and this current day version turns into a “Lord of the Flies” type situation. Looking forward to continuing this one.

Don’t Forget Your Briefcase #4. Written by Eliot Rahal and art and cover art by Phillip Sevy. The penultimate issue of this Mad Cave book came out this week. I have really enjoyed this book so far with this political thriller.

Blue Falcon & Dynomutt #2. Written by Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Pasquale Qualano. Cover art was done by Lucio Parrillo. Blue Falcon is on a rampage, looking for the people who killed his dog. However, Dyno may not be official dead. We continue with the origin of Dyno-Mutt.

Nightwing #131. “Cirque Du Sin. Part 2: Circus Music.” Written by Dan Watters and art and cover art by Dexter Soy. Nightwing and Nightwing Prime are on a training mission but problems are happening. I am not sure if I am a fan of Nightwing Prime. It gives me those Spider-Man/Rek Rap vibes.

The Punisher: Red Band #2. Written by Benjamin Pearcy and art by Julius Ohta. Cover art was done by Marco Checchetto & Matthew Wilson. Punisher is back and he is out to kill everyone he wants. Kingpin is here too and things are nasty.

Unbreakable X-Men #1. “Guarding the Gate.” Written by Gail Simone and art and cover art by Lucas Werneck. I also grabbed the foil cover by Mateus Manhanini. This is a great story of loss and grief as Rogue dies and Gambit has to deal with his grief. I am very pleased that Gail Simone is continuing with one of the Age of Revelation books. I have been quite a fan of her Uncanny X-Men run so far.

Rogue Storm #1. Written by Murewa Ayadele with art by Roland Boschi. Cover art was by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado. The Age of Revelation continued with this book with Storm and.. Rogue? Wait, didn’t Rogue just die in the Unbreakable X-Men #1? A cool idea to be able to maintain Rogue in this world.

Sinister’s Six #1. Written by David Marquez and art by Rafael Loureiro. Cover art was done by David Marquez & GURU-eFX. It is the X-Factor team, led by Havok, and they are dealing with Venom. I am not sure which Venom this is, but it was a fascinating book. It is unknown as to which ones are working for which ones.

Iron & Frost #1. Written by Cavan Scott with pencils by Ruairí Coleman. Dustin Weaver did the cover art. They were married once, but now we get to find out what the Age of Revelation holds for Tony Stark and Emma Frost.

One World Under Doom #8. “To Will the God” Written by Ryan North and art by R.B. Silva. Ben Harvey was the cover artist. Doom seems to be winning, battling all of earth’s heroes, but an unexpected collateral damage stops Doom in his tracks.

Captain America #4. Written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Valerio Schiti. Ben Harvey does the cover art. The big slugfest between Cap and Dr. Doom comes to a conclusion here and the “new” Cap goes to the brutality.

Incredible Hulk #30. “The Requiem Plain” Part Three. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Nic Klein. Cover art was done by Nic Klein. The final issue of Incredible Hulk sees Hulk and Banner split apart (yet again) which leads to another, very frightening version of Hulk. This leads to the new series, The Infernal Hulk #1.

Artillery: Weapons of Art #1. Written, drawn by and starring Jimmie Robinson. A new book from a new company. The company is known by Invader Comics. This is an intriguing new book with the concept of art being magical. The writer/artist of the book is also a supporting player in this book. Cool stuff here.

Justice League Red #3. Written by Saladin Ahmad and art by Clayton Henry. Cover art is done by Clayton Henry and Arif Prianto. The plans of Red Tornado continues as they rescue Red Canary and bring in Deadman (YAY!). Now they are heading off to take on Black Adam!

They Choose Violence #5. Written by Sheldon Allen and illustrated by Mauricio Campetella. Cover art was done by Rahzzah (Silver Medalist). This book comes to an end with this issue. This was quite a violent book and was very much connected with race. The covers have been spectacular.

Terrorbytes #1. Written by Mark Russell and art by Felix Ruiz. Juan Doe did the cover art. I had no idea what this book was, but between seeing Mark Russell as a writer and being a new book from Mad Cave, I decided to give it a chance. It was an intriguing new book with a mysterious future with AI. Looking good.

Survive #2. Written by Robert Venditti and art by Doug Braithwaite. Cover art by Eduardo Risso. The Bad Idea comic company has been doing some good work and this thriller involving a sinking submarine is an exciting and dramatic book.

Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe #4. Written by Gerry Duggan with art by Paco Medina and Javier Garrón. Cover art was done by Mark Brooks. We got giant Hulk vs. Godzilla. The Marvel heroes are pulling a whole Power Rangers concept with their giant robot to fight the King of Monsters.

Save Now #1. Written by Matt Kinot and art done by Tomas Giorello. Cover art was done by Jorge Fornes. Another new cool book from Bad Idea. This was a story where one of the main characters can travel back in time to redo problems that he faced. It was pretty great.

Amazing Spider-Man #14. Written by Joe Kelly and pencils by Ed McGuinness with Todd Nauck. Cover art was done by Patrick Gleason & Marcio Menyz. I also picked up the variant cover by Lee Bermejo. We are back with Norman Osborn on earth as he struggled to maintain the mantel of Spider-Man.

Hector Plasm: Hunt the Bigfoot #1. Written by Benito Cereno and art by Derek Hunter. Cover art was done by Ryan Ottley & Dave McCaig. I do love bigfoot stories and this is a fun combination of ghosts and more. Hector Plasm is an intriguing character and it feels as if he has had other books prior.

Sonja Reborn #2. Written by Christopher Priest and art by Alessandro Miracolo. Cover art was done by Stjepan Sejic. The new Red Sonja with the mind swap is a fascinating story.

Other books this week: Ghost Pepper #4, Return to Skull Island #4, GI Joe #12, 30 Days of Night: Falling Sun #1, Good as Dead #2, The New Gods #11, Fantastic Four x Gargoyles #1, Superman #30, and Viking Moon #1.

Quick Hits: This week’s Bronze medalist was The War #3, which ended that reprint story from Hello Darkness. Speaking of that, Hello Darkness #15 had two covers this week that I bought including one by Jenny Frison. Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton #5 was another final issue for a series. There was a new Christmastime story called Yuletide #1. Charles Soule’s The Lucky Devils #5 carries on as well. DC’s Absolute Flash #8 focused in on Barry Allen and his involvement in the project that led to Wally West becoming Absolute Flash. Everything Dead & Dying #2 continues its zombie story which is unlike most any other zombie story you’ll come across. Apparently, I got that a week late, though I did not realize it. We get some origin of Darkwing Duck in Darkwing Duck #6. Racer X #2 is a bit of a cross over with the last Speed Racer story, which was a weird POV shift. Tama #3 seems to be taking that character and making it antagonistic. The Tama character is very wild at this point. I picked up Titans #28 to give it a chance. I liked the Titans when they were being used in Tom Taylor’s Nightwing run, and I am giving this variation a chance as it moves into the big Darkseid return. Godzilla Escape the Dead Zone #3 finally gave us a shot of Godzilla in the book. Finally, there was Zdarsky Comic News#16 which is always a lot of fun.

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #52

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#52

Ms. Marvel

The MCU always seem to do a great job casting their characters, but one of the competitors for best casting of all time has to be Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel.

The young girl is such a perfect Kamala Khan and she brings that amazing youthful energy to the project, full of joy and wonder.

I am going to echo what a lot of people have said about Ms. Marvel. The best part of the show, outside of Iman Vellani, is the family unit that is in place around Kamala. There is not one scene of this show that involves Kamala’s aprents, brother or friends that does not hit. Now, the villains and superhero parts of the show are not as strong for sure. I am not as down on this aspect of the show as others, but I can’t disagree that it does not reach the heights of the family.

The Disney + show brought its characters to the big screen in The Marvels and even had one guest star on Daredevil: Born Again (Mohan Kapur guest starred as Yusef Khan, Kamala’s father).

Kamala was revealed to be the first mutant in the MCU as they used the X-Men animated theme as a creative way to give out that information.

The Ms. Marvel was fun and energetic, filled with some of the most creative backgrounds in the MCU. I do hope we get more Kamala Kham as the MCU moves along.

Vampyr (1932)

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11 of the October 13

In all honesty, I am not sure I have any idea of what happened in this movie.

The October 13 headed back to 1932, thanks to HBO Max, for a black and white gothic horror movie entitled Vampyr.

It is bizarre, wild, disorienting and nightmarish. And I am not sure I know what happened.

According to IMDB, “A drifter obsessed with the supernatural stumbles upon an inn where a severely ill adolescent girl is slowly becoming a vampire.”

The info drop they present us with included a lot of details that we have not seen in vampire stories before, which is fine, but it was a little difficult to follow.

The visuals of this movie, especially the odd out-of-body experience that our main protagonist, Allan Gray went through happened without any explanation at all. The death of the doctor at the end of the film, smothered in flour, was also as weird of an ending as you could expect. Then, Gray and Giséle, who had been kidnapped by the doctor, were on a boat.

It all feels more like a fever dream than anything else.

Isle of the Dead (1945)

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10 of the October 13

With this year’s October 13, most of the films have been from the last 10-15 years. I wanted to find something older to add to the list, so I went to HBO Max and found a film from 1945 featuring EYG Hall of Famer Boris Karloff called Isle of the Dead.

According to IMDB, “On a Greek island during the 1912 war, several people are trapped by quarantine for the plague. If that isn’t enough worry, one of the people, a superstitious old peasant woman, suspects one young girl of being a vampiric kind of demon called a vorvolaka“

The film was a slow burn for much of the runtime, as the characters stuck on the island began to fall from the plague. However, once the identity of the “vorvolaka” was revealed and she went on her spree in the end of the film, the story picked up rapidly.

Boris Karloff gives a great performance as General Nikolas Pherides. The General was very much suspicious of Thea (Ellen Drew) and the combination of the sickness and his own paranoia led to a madness gripping him. Karloff was definitely the stand out of the actors involved.

The music of the score worked extremely well, creating a sufficient feel for each scene.

The story was simple and the horror did elevate near the third act. With a strong performance from an iconic horror actor, Isle of the Dead ended on a strong note.

Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018)

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9 of the October 13

This is the third Hell House film that I have seen. I have not gone in any specific order. I started with the original Hell House film and then, for the October 13 for 2024, I watched the Hell House LLC: Origins film.

This, the first sequel to the original, has been on my queue on Amazon Prime for quite awhile now.

The film had some moments to it, but it was a step down from the other Hell House films that I have seen. The found footage/documentary format does work well for this series. This film added the “Morning Mysteries” talk show idea to help build the suspense of what was going on.

However, the twist at the end was laughable. There were good moments leading into this, but none of them would be as remembered as this horrific ending twist. It is perhaps one of the worst ending sequences I have seen in a long time.

Even if I had been engaged with the film up until the ending, that would have truly wrecked it. As it is, I was mildly interested in the film prior to this, but it took a major nose dive after that.

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #53

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#53

The Rookie

This is the second show in the Top 100 to star Nathan Fillion. He was Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly (#72) and now he is John Nolan in The Rookie, a police drama on ABC.

John Nolan is a middle aged man who decided that he wanted to change his life and become a police officer for the LAPD. As a forty + year old, being a rookie is a challenge and John faced everything imaginable.

The Rookie has gone through a lot of different side characters and has developed into more than just Nathan Fillion’s show, but he is still at the center of the show after seven seasons.

Other actors appearing on The Rookie include:  Alyssa Diaz, Richard T. Jones, Titus Makin Jr., Mercedes Mason, Melissa O’Neil, Eric Winter, Afton Williamson, Mekia Cox, Shawn Ashmore, Jenna Dewan, Tru Valentino, and Lisseth Chavez.

What I like the most about the character of John Nolan is how compassionate he is. He goes out of his way in an attempt to try and aid anyone that is placed in front of him, including the criminals he is dealing with. That kind of reminds me of one of the main reasons why, as a youth, I was attracted to Spider-Man.

The show has also found a huge success in the romance between Lucy Chen and Tim Bradford. Tim started as her training officer, but after she moved past rookie status, the pair became a couple worth rooting for.

The Rookie is scheduled to return for an eighth season. The show does some very creative episodes designed to keep the originality alive.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #39

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Spoilers

“Open Casket”

That insect coming out of the mouth of that little dead kitten…. that was horrifying.

The second episode of The Haunting of Hill House was all about death and the after effects for those who were left behind.

Grief is a powerful emotion and this episode really shows the realistic ways people grieve, all mixed with the strange supernatural goings-on surrounding this family.

With Nellie’s suicide being the backdrop of the storytelling, the episode’s focus was on Shirley and her own problems. Shirley insists on preparing Nellie’s body for the funeral, something that everyone around her feels is a bd idea. We get flashbacks to the Hill House when Shirley discovered a group of deserted kittens and tried to help them. However, the kittens were sick and ended up dying (except for the last one, which was taken away by her parents).

We saw several moments when dealing with death, particularly with the idea of an open casket. I have to say that I, personally, hate open caskets. They kept referring to “fixing” the body, but I have never seen an open casket where the body seemed right.

I thought this episode was strong, but I would be lying if I said that the non-linear storytelling isn’t difficult to follow still. I am still trying to understand who is who during these moments. It felt a little better this week, but I know that I was more into the present storyline than I was with the flashbacks because of that.

When that insect crawled out of that kitten’s mouth…. man, that caught me totally off guard.

The Haunting of Hill House is on Netflix.

Terrifier (2016)

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8 of the October 13

I have avoided the Terrifier franchise up until this point. I figured that I could include this in the October 13 this year since I found them available on Peacock. I have always enjoyed a good killer clown.

Of course, I much prefer Pennywise to Art the Clown.

I did like the design of the character of Art the Clown. He looked good. After that though, I was not much of a fan of this movie.

The biggest problem was that none of these characters, including Art, meant anything to me. There was really no story to the film. Sure, most slasher films have a limited amount of story, but there usually is something. This was lacking completely.

The killings were gruesome and had a bit of humor to them. I had to roll my eyes at the hacksaw killing because of how impossible it would be. If you know, you know. It felt as if the gore was the only thing that Terrifier had going for it.

The ending in the morgue made no sense as there had been zero hints prior that Art was anything more than just a kook in a clown mask.

While Terrifier was just 1 hour and 25 minutes long, the sequel expanded to a whopping 2 hours and 25 minutes, which will probably prevent me from watching it any time soon. The first film did not inspire me to want to invest that long into a second taste of Art the Clown.

Gen V S2 E7

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Spoilers

“Hell Week”

The penultimate episode for season two of Gen V brought the goods and the answers to a couple of major mysteries of the season.

In particular, we discover who the old man being held by Cipher was… and it was Thomas Godolkin. However, there was more to it than just that. Marie healed the old man, and then we discovered that Godolkin was using Cipher as a puppet. Turned out Cipher was actually some schlub named Doug.

Now, Godolkin is all better and out, ready to wipe out those supes who are not worth the time.

Marie, it seems, has made some poor choices moving forward. Her attempt at “protecting” her friends led her to using her powers against them. As she is becoming more powerful, it feels as if Marie is becoming more of a jerk. Is that just the way all powerful heroes are in this world?

This episode seemed to be quick, but it was impactful, with Cipher taking on Polarity and some of the other heroes.

Everything is set up for one banger of a finale next week, leading into the final season of the Boys.

Strange Frequencies: Taiwan Killer Hospital (2024)

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7 of The October 13

For the next film in the October 13 this year, I went to Netflix for a 2024 Philippine found footage film based on a Korean film from 2018 called Gonijam: Haunted Asylum.

According to IMDB, “Reality TV stars face mounting supernatural horrors while filming at haunted Xinglin Hospital in Taiwan. As paranormal activity intensifies, group dynamics crumble and a dark force manipulates their survival choices.“

The idea of a group of online celebrities doing a livestream inside a horrendous haunted asylum and streaming their eventual deaths across the internet does not sound like a situation that is improbable. In fact, I could see something like this taking place in the world of YouTube today.

It seemed as if most of these actors were playing some form of themselves during the film. They all did an exceptional job of creating tension and anxiety through their outright terror and panic to escape the horrors that they were facing.

A few of the deaths were terrible, including the ones that were more quiet, like Zarck, who appears to have caught some kind of deadly virus and he was breaking our in scabs and growths.

While a lot of the dialogue was members of the team just calling out each other’s names (aka “ALEXA!”, “QUEN!” etc.), it built that feeling of confusion and hysteria.

This was a good use of the found footage subgenre and the movie had some interesting comments to make on the online community. The responses to the live stream on the side of the screen were very realistic.

The Devil’s Candy (2015)

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6 of The October 13

I had never heard of this movie before, but after seeing Dangerous Animals, directed by Sean Byrne, I saw on his IMDB page that he had done another horror film called The Devil’s Candy. I was impressed enough with the Dangerous Animals movie, that I looked into this movie. It had a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and was available on Shudder.

With the positives, I added it to the possible films for the October 13 this year. I just watched it and it was a frightening thriller with some solid performances.

According to IMDB, “Metal music, paint, and family are the passions of struggling painter, Jesse, who lives a happy life with his wife, and daughter. Things look brighter when Jesse finds a huge old house, in rural Texas, selling at a very low price, due to its mysterious past. They move in and Jesse converts the barn into a studio. But soon, his work starts taking on a new, darker flavour – and things get even more ominous when the hulking, unbalanced son of the former owners appears on the doorstep. Jesse’s family won’t be safe until they find a way to quiet the Devil himself.“

Pruitt Taylor Vince played Ray Smilie, who lived in the house before. His presence in the film was disturbing every second he was on screen. You felt for him at first, but that does not last long as he begins to do some horrendous things.

The tone of this movie was so uneasy, filled with tension that you were never really sure where the film was heading next and whether or not this was going to turn out to be a positive ending. I like that kind of film and the mood was truly ramped up.

Byrne does a great job directing this and you can see where his storytelling highlights the important details in the film. He is one of our new voices in horror with a couple huge successes under his belt.

Daily Countdown: TV Shows #54

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#54

Frasier

“Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs”

The character of Frasier is one of the longest running characters on TV, appearing first on Cheers, and then his own spin off, Frasier.

Frasier moves back to his home in Seattle with his father and brother. His brother, Niles, is like a carbon copy of Frasier, and you wouldn’t expect a pair of characters who are so much the same to work, but it does. It does tremendously well.

Kelsey Grammar and David Hyde Pierce are amazing together, becoming perhaps the most similar brothers on TV.

The storyline between Niles and his father’s physical therapist Daphne became one of the major ongoing storylines for the run of the series.

Frasier ran on NBC for 11 years.

Good Fortune

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I was not excited about this movie. I was not a fan of the trailers that I had seen and I found the performance of Keanu Reeves to be weird.

However, after watching the full movie, and seeing Keanu Reeves’ performance in context, I understand what he was doing much more.

Accordsing to IMDB, “In Good Fortune, Ansari plays a down-on-his-luck guy who is working myriad jobs. He’s called by his friend (played by Seth Rogen), who lives in the Hollywood Hills, to do various jobs for him – put in a disco floor, fix the pool heater. Keanu Reeves “valley” angel makes it so Rogen’s rich guy situation is swapped with Ansari, so the latter has the former’s life.”

I had wondered why Keanu was playing this character in such a one note feel. After seeing the film, I understand that he is playing an angel who was never a human being, so he did not have the emotions that one might expect. Because of that, I do think I readjusted my opinions.

The film had a simple story, and was well written. It avoided some of the typical tropes of this type of film, especially the arc taken by Keanu’s Gabriel. There was some good humor here. I really liked Seth Rogen’s work in this movie. Aziz Ansari’s performance was not as great for me, but he was fine.

It is amazing that the performance of Keanu Reeves, which made me iffy about the film from the trailers, turned out to be the best part of this movie. I think Good Fortune is a good time and a fun watch.

3.75 stars

Black Phone 2

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The first film, Black Phone, was such a surprise hit and was so great that you knew there would be a sequel at some point, despite the fact that the Grabber, played by Ethan Hawke, was killed.

Of course, Ethan Hawke returned to the film in a supernatural manner as Black Phone 2 dropped in theaters this weekend.

According to IMDB, “As Finn, now 17, struggles with life after his captivity, his sister begins receiving calls in her dreams from the black phone and seeing disturbing visions of three boys being stalked at a winter camp known as Alpine Lake.“

Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw returned as Finney and Gwen. Finney was the kid who the Grabber snatched in the last movie and his sister Gwen used her dreams to find where he was being held at. Gwen has had some issues with dreams still and it led them to a winter camp in the mountains.

The tone of this movie is so excellent. It is frightening and anxiety-fueling. There were multiple moments that were very disturbing and unsettling.

Ethan Hawke’s return as the Grabber was awesome. It was a creative way to bring him back. It was a Freddy Krueger type of situation and it was scary.

The performances of all the actors were fantastic. I thought they all did such a great job and helped create the suspense. This was especially the truth for Madeleine McGraw’s Gwen. She had to carry a lot of the real impact of the story.

However, I do think that some of the story became too convoluted and messy. I had some issues with the story that I will not spoil here. Still, the positives of this film overweighed the problems I found in the film.

Black Phone 2 was a solid sequel, though I did not like it as much as the original. It was a strong follow up.

3.6 stars

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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October 17

It is Friday, not Thursday because my Parent/Teacher Conferences played havoc with my comic schedule.

I received my box of books from Keensport that was the new Mark Spears book, The Monster and the Wolf. It was a blast opening those Blind bags of those books. I really thought that those would all take the top three medal spots this week… and then I went to Bettendorf and found a few other books that changed that choice.

Also-Rans: Blue Falcon & Dynomutt #2, Iron & Frost #1, Sonja Reborn #2, Amazing Spider-Man #14 (Cover B), Hello Darkness #15, Endeavor #1, and Unbreakable X-Men #1 (Variant Foil Cover).

Bronze Medalist

The War #3

Variant Cover B

Cover art by Bjorn Barends

What a beautifully powerful cover with the representation of death. The colors are amazing and work so well. It was a variant cover and I chose this over cover A.

Silver Medalist

They Choose Violence #5

Cover art by Rahzzah

This was the cover that led to the decision to NOT let Mark Spears’ new book own the top three spots. The brutal and bloody cover was as compelling as I have ever seen. In most weeks, this would be the number one book. I mean, look at the blood around the mouth of this person. It is so disturbing and beautifully frightening.

Gold Medalist

Mark Spears’ The Monster and the Wolf #1

Cover art by Mark Spears

I decided to take all of the Blind Bag books and bunch them together as the gold medalists this week. I used the Star Wars homage issue as the example because this is one of the standouts of the books I got. It’s a lot of fun.