Captain Marvel, Terraria, A Few More Random Thoughts and Links

And As We Proceed...
I need to get back in the swing of posting things more regularly. Let's talk about a comic, a video-game, and random other factoids about those two forms of media and other stuff to get my knack for writing gibberish back.

Good, But It Needs Some "Oomph"

The name, "Captain Marvel," carries with it a long and confusing history, but basically the hero Ms. Marvel has gone and adopted the name of the once-popular-now-dead-for-some-time-except-for-the-occasional-fake-resurrection (that's a mouthful) Captain Marvel. Written by Kelly Sue Deconnick (friend of the blog, see an interview with her here) this is not a reboot of Ms. Marvel as she still has all her past, she just is taking a new title (for her) now. Time to delve into my observations!

First off, let's discuss something pretty unimportant. I hate that new do' of feathered hair. The first idea for a new look of her hair was much better:

That observation aside, this was a perfectly fine comic, but it missed something special. Yes, the art was a bit lacking as some have noticed, but that didn't bug me too much. Also, there is no big conflict introduced this issue either, but I found that a little refreshing to not have an opener start with some world-destroying threat our hero has to face before we can get their new status-quo established, though maybe the fact this is all set-up bugs me a bit. Some complained the psuedo-poem that flies about the pages in panel-less white text was hokey in its attempt to be sweet, but that didn't bother me much and I kind of liked it. So what was missing for me in this comic? I love Kelly Sue Deconnick's writing generally and did enjoy this after all!

Maybe this issue just lacked a spark of me wanting to know what happens next. Yes, I think that's it. I'm not alone in thinking this was all set-up either, to bring up my other observation once more. All the pieces of a great story are there, they just haven't come together in a way where I'm at the edge of my seat wanting to witness everything play out. Maybe I just need a few more issues to get that, "wow," factor from this--an injection of some, "oomph," into the story so I get really pumped to read more. Deconnick is highly skilled, so I'm not too worried about this comic and its chances of being great. I think we just need a little bit of time for it to grow and once it kicks into gear fully we'll be set. Until then, this was a good first issue, but not an amazing one.

3 out of 5 stars.

Build Houses, Fight Monsters, Craft Items, Have Fun

Terraria is an interesting game. Some people say its basically a 2-D Minecraft. I wouldn't know because much to my shame I actually haven't played Minecraft. I have played Terraria though, extensively, and can report it is quite a good time.

Basically you are thrust into a digital sandbox with nothing to do other than wander around. Through looking at online wikis or just blundering about you will eventually start building houses, fighting gigantic monsters, exploring jungles and dungeons, and doing a lot of digging to the underground. As you mine more powerful ore, smelt better armor, buy crazy items and weapons, and maybe even learn how to use wiring so as to open up a new crazy way of making placed items function you'll undoubtedly have fun and maybe get a little addicted. Oh, and there is a multi-player mode too if you want your friends to join in, although I admittedly have not yet tried the multi-player function.

It's a fun little game and I'm glad I picked it up for very cheap during the Steam Summer Sale that the online service had. I'd recommend getting it at full price as even at its normal cost of 10 dollars you'll get hours worth of entertainment.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Assorted Junk

So the novelization of the Dark Knight Rises hints at what happened to the Joker after the 2nd film, but even it isn't sure. Hm.

The fan-film Thomas Jane made is pretty awesome, as is its surprise reveal (SPOILER) that he is playing The Punisher. The original movie with Jane as the lead wasn't too bad, but definitely could have used some improvement. This though, is golden. Plus Ron Perlman pops up in it!

Invincible Iron Man written by Kieron Gillen? Sweet! With art by Greg Land? Disappointing!

Not only are Tucker Stone and his friends hilarious in every edition of Comics Of The Weak, they also point to amazingly insightful articles like this one by The New Inquiry about the Dark Knight Rises and how searching for political meaning in it is both vain, and a bit rewarding.

Grant Morrison will be finishing up his work with big-name super-heroes around 2013 and will be pursuing creator-owned work. If we get more incredible stuff like "The Filth," (which was done for DC's Vertigo but is creator-owned) I'm certainly up for it.

I haven't heard much of anything about the video-game Watch Dogs since its surprise announcement at E3, but just by looking at the game-play demonstration video again I start salivating at the thought of playing it. When you see a game demo and go, "Wait, how did they do that? And that? And that?" You know it looks like something special.

There are a lot of problem with AVX (Avengers Versus X-Men), Tim O'Neil summarizes many of them well.

Done For Now

There we go, I got some writing up, shared my thoughts, and babbled incessantly. Yeah, it was a good time.

The Tragedy In Colorado-- Remember The Victims, And Don't Use It To Prove A Point

Of all the things I write about on this site, comics and movies generally are the biggest items. This means that comic-book-movies get a special amount of attention from me. So, Thursday night in St. Louis I attended a marathon screening of the Batman movies--the whole trilogy with the newest premiering at Midnight. I enjoyed myself but upon arriving home my phone "dinged" with an update from various news sites. Not too far away in the US some people who had gone to a midnight screening of Batman for the same reason as I did not get to enjoy the film. No, they were robbed of their lives for nothing more than being people who were big enough fans they went to a midnight premiere of a movie. 

A madman killed and badly hurt a large number of these individuals in the theater who wanted nothing more than to have an experience we all treasure and sometimes share with others in a theater--seeing a film. In the days that follow we may learn of possible motives, various forms of media will probably be scoured over for the slightest resemblance to this tragedy and blamed (comic books, video-games, anything remotely related to Batman--all are possible). Those who are for guns being harder to buy will use this as an example, those who are against gun control will also use this as an example. People of each view will just use it in differing ways to achieve the same goal it seems people always attempt in light of a tragedy--to make a point.

We shouldn't try to make a point out of this though and use it as fuel for our individual causes. We should look at this as a tragedy done by a dangerously insane person, and instead of trying to use this for our own ends we should focus on those who were hurt and killed and the honoring of them in our memories.

I was going to post my review of Dark Knight Rising on Friday (in my "Film Friday" segment), but due to events that early morning I decided it was best to shift said review to this Friday so I had time to think about how to address these events in my review, if I even want to dredge up that pain in discussing something that should be a joyous event, as movies usually are.

My heart goes out to the victims and their families. Let's remember them, not try to prove a point.

Scattered Thoughts On San Diego Comic-Con News

The Doors Open, The Crowd Floods In.
The big Comic-Con happened just recently. If you know comics then you know when I say the Comic-Con that means San Diego Comic-Con/Comic-Con International/That Thing Where Tickets Sell Out Immediately  To Be Stuck in a Suffocating Crowd With The Hopes of Getting Into a Twilight Panel If You Wait Enough Countless Hours Outside The Event Hall and Don't Get Killed In The Process. Various things happened there and I will talk about what I found interesting whilst completely ignoring what I did not. I know we are past the point of this being "new" information, but I would hope if you like comics you don't just read my blog, that of a single man who is hopefully entertaining enough that his sporadic posting and occasional spelling/grammar errors can be overlooked. If you do just read my blog...um, thanks?
The News

Neil Gaiman is making more Sandman Comics. When this news was announced countless goth-girl fans of his screamed with delight and nearly passed out from a joygasm. It will be a prequel of sorts.

This is what a terrible person looks like.

J Michael Straczynski is not only a complete asshole as quotes from him about Before Watchmen made clear, he also is going to be making new comics--but just for the purpose of getting them made into other media such as movies. I hate it companies and people do this, and his comment about making, "New IPs [intellectual property]," instead of, say, wanting to make interesting stories just pissed me off more. It's sad because I loved Supreme Power (not really anything else he did, however) but this just makes me further committed to not buying anything from him again, ever.

If you've been listening to any mainstream comic book news lately you have probably heard about a newsman having the balls to (wisely) call "bullshit" on, "Before Watchmen," as something honoring Alan Moore's vision while he protests it being made. That isn't really Comic-Con News but leads into my mentioning of the panel for said comics. I have zero interest in Before Watchmen and whatever was discussed there, but something interesting to me did happen in that Quentin Tarantino showed up to crash the panel and announce how a comic was being made of his movie, Django Unchained. I hope the movie is good, and perhaps the comic will be too.

"Marvel NOW," which I think we are legally required to make sure we put the, "NOW," in all capital letters is a thing. Marvel NOW AKA "Let's Basically Copy The DC Relaunch and See How That Works Out," was further elaborated on at San Diego. Pretty much some comics get re-launched (but the world is still the same, so don't say reboot!) and a others oddly keep their numbering, a bunch of heroes change outfits, new comics debut, and it becomes abundantly clear Marvel is making this up as they go along because some of the comics being given new numbering have been around all of a year (as I saw pointed out).

Stephanie Brown was a character in DC comics. She was known as Spoiler and has been a Batgirl. When DC did their big world-relaunch/reboot she was made to no longer exist. The Smallville Comic (which continues the story of the TV show out of Smallville and into Clark Kent's first year as Superman...yet is still called Smallville) is going to be bringing Batman into the mythos. His sidekick was to be Ms. Brown, to the delight of many fans who mourned her being gone. Then suddenly DC did a big switcheroo making it so she wouldn't be there, instead it would be Barbra Gordon. At this point all the fans of Stephanie Brown sighed yet another disappointed sigh and went off to sob in a corner somewhere--as they generally do because good news never comes their way.

Speaking of Smallville-type news. The newest DC television series about a young hero--this one focused on Green Arrow--was screened at Comic-Con and apparently looks promising. I still probably won't watch it because I just don't care about Green Arrow. At all. That and I never watched Smallville really.

Deadpool gets his own video-game. The very crass-but-cool trailer at the link seems true to the spirit of Deadpool with its humor and ultra-violence. I really hope this is good.

Marvel announced their new movies. A new Captain America, Thor, but then in really fun stuff Ant Man and Guardians of The Galaxy. Well all right! Plus they screened teasers for Iron Man 3 (I'm excited for that too) and test footage for Ant Man I'd love to see.

Image Comics announced a bunch of new stuff at Comic-Con, some by creators I am excited to read new stuff from, such as Joe Casey.


Then Things Ended
That's all I really found particularly interesting and worth commenting on. Here's hoping things are as good as what has been promised (except for Straczynski's stuff, bleh to him).

Sorry For No New Posts.

Sorry for the lack of updates.  I’ve been on trips around America to see the family, visit folk, and etc. etc. I have seen a lot of movies, been reading comics, and hope to get thoughts about all that up soon.  After all, it’s not like anything happened while I took my short break. What’s that? San Diego had its what now? OH CRAP I FORGOT!

Film Friday--The Amazing Spider Man

That Was Decently Fun
The Amazing Spider-Man was a good movie. Not utterly excellent, but pretty enjoyable. I was somewhat of the mind that considering not too long ago we had a trilogy of Spidey flicks that maybe rebooting the character was a bit... unnecessary. Having seen the movie and its somewhat new spin on things I am more confident that perhaps starting fresh with Spider-Man was a pretty solid idea, despite the problems I have with the film.

You would think the thing that bugs me the most is going-over Spider-Man's origin again on film. That would make you wrong though, because I found the earlier parts of the movie where the titular Peter Parker is thinking about a mystery with his parents (that somewhat disappears from the film clearly to be continued in future installments) getting used to his crazy new powers, and of course having the requisite guilt about Uncle Ben to be some ofgreat the more enjoyable parts of the movie. Andrew Garfield does a great job even if he looks a little too handsome and fit to truly "feel" like geeky Peter Parker. Emma Stone is quite good as Gwen Stacy too and Dennis Leary is fun as her police-chief father. The problems start to set in a bit later once The Lizard shows up.

Garfield and Stone show a chemistry between them.

I don't want to spoil what evil plan is that Rhys Ifans' character has, but its pretty darn silly. Once we hit the middle of the movie and the focus goes onto our villain's plan the movie just sort of drags. No matter how much cool action we get between Spider-Man and The Lizard fighting that overall goal he has is still pretty absurd. That's a shame as the actors do a great job making the silly threat seem credible even if by the end of the movie I'm pretty much just going, "So that green liquid is bad and the blue one is good...or something?"

"I've got a pretty stupid plan."

Also, even though I tend to prefer the first movie in a trilogy stand somewhat alone and not try to set up future installments, the mid end-credit's teaser with what seems to be the first appearance of Norman Osborn in this universe does make me excited at the idea of Peter learning more about the mystery with his parents, and the Green Goblin showing up in the next movie (I'm pretty sure Gwen is gonna die like in the comics come the sequel and the third movie will be about Spider-Man getting revenge for it, I'm just gonna call that one now).

Overall this is a well-done film with a great start and intriguing finishing tease, but a draggy middle and quite dumb end. If you don't think too much about it though, and just enjoy the action and the hints of good things to come, it's still a solid piece of 2 hours and change. Just be ready for the flaws too. Oh, and no, Nick Fury does not show up to tie this in with Avengers as some rumor-mongers have said, Spider-Man seems to be staying in his own super-hero world for now.
3 out of 5 stars.

A Company Acts Evil Yet Again And Makes It Hard For Me To Enjoy Their Comics

There is the, "Before Watchmen," debacle I've spoken about many times as being an insult to creator's rights and a big, "FUCK YOU ALAN MOORE!" from DC. Well, now DC is being negative toward creators yet again with their announcement of a Black Lightning arc in their pseudo-anthology, "DC Comics Presents."

Basically even though Tony Isabella would really prefer DC treat Black Lightining as something he made in partnership with them and not work-for-hire which is clearly appears to be the former instead of the latter, DC is going to just put out some Black Lightning comics because apparently they want to say, "FUCK YOU TONY ISABELLA," between their evil laughs about Before Watchmen.

Seriously DC, do you want me to think of you as evil? Do you want me to seriously consider dropping all DC Comics because I just am feeling like I'm supporting screwing over creators? You do your, "Meet The Makers," campaign as if you care about the people doing your comics, but you don't even call them creators, you just say they are makers.


There seems to truly be a lack of morals at DC and Marvel when it comes to treatment of the people who make their comics--DC has just looked really bad lately with Marvel just getting black-eyes with the whole Avengers-and-Jack Kirby-not-getting-credit-for-the-series-at-first-business. This makes me really sad, and if this keeps up I'm not sure I can really do DC comics if this is their regular behavior. Marvel is on notice too, but man is DC being terrible.

Rant-Reviews--The Quality Decreases With Each Comic

Out The Gate
Let's review some comics, starting and the best and going to the least enjoyable: Fatale #6, Venom #19, Justice League#10, Justice League International #10.

Fatale #6
As we start our 2nd arc of the story things get even weirder, with a washed-up actor, a mysterious film, and that strange woman who continues to stay young and hold a magic sway over men. Also we get more of the story in the, "present," and see that whatever evil plagued the past hasn't stopped yet. Brubaker is juggling so many plot points and mysteries its amazing he is able to keep things going smoothly and everything hasn't just collapsed into an utter mess.

 Then again, Brubaker does some of his best work with collaborator Sean Philips, who makes art that causes me to want to cry--but in a good way. I cry because it looks so good, and many mainstream comics these days resemble something hideous and hastily-drawn to a point where you can barley tell what is supposed to be going on. In this case Brubaker mentions in the backmatter how Philips got a little extra time to do the issue and damn it, you don't rush something this nice. Criminal may not have gotten huge yet, and Incognito is a bit popular (both published under the creator-owned subprint of Marvel, Icon, and interestingly Fatale is from Dark Horse), but I'm pleased Fatale is becoming a huge hit for these two as they work hard and deserve something for sheer beauty.
4.5 out of 5 stars.


Venom #19
Remender is going to be handing the reins of this book over to Cullen Bunn and they are working together on this issue. I'm not sure who put in more work, but it is clear metaphorical decks are being cleared for something fresh after Cullen takes over the book solo. People are getting killed off (it appears), long-simmering plot-lines are crashing to the fore and man is it dark (to think that villain used his acid saliva to eat an old woman is just...yeesh).

This book has always been quirky, but right now its just dark and twisted...and it kind of works. I'm interested to see where Bunn goes once Remender is done with Venom completely, but right now as everything comes to a close in a way that is really not good for our hero I'm thinking perhaps we will have a comic without the requisite happy-ending--if Remender keeps things going the way they are. I'd like his run to end on a downer with Venom uttery defeated and Bunn building him back up. It beats the, "hero comes back at the last minute," schlock that stops being surprising after the 50th time it looks like Superman is down for the count but somehow finds the energy to win the day.
3.5 out of 5 stars.

Justice League #10
A guy who wrote a book about the league is fighting them, there is lots of talking, it's kind of dull but looks pretty with Jim Lee's art. In the end its still dull even if it looks nice. This all is disappointing as this arc started out in a way that looked somewhat promising with the Justice League as heroes who the government didn't trust but were too powerful to do anything about--a kind of "The Authority" vibe, really. There was also some hinted intrigue with the Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, and all these other little plots that seem to have been dropped for some supposed-to-be-imposing-looking-bad-guy, who in order to convince us he is a the real deal writer Geoff Johns let's him take out the whole league without breaking a sweat. Trying to make us think your character is badass by having them beat up a bunch of heroes is just played out, kind of like having a villain talk about how they are going to not just kill a hero but kill their family too...which our new villain did in issue #9 as I recall. Yeah.
2 out of 5 stars.

Justice League International #10
A villain who looks like Spawn but breaks things down at the molecular level and his fellow baddies spout off vaguely occupy-wall-street/tea party jargon about taking the country back (it seems more to make the liberals look bad with its comment about CEOS, you know how much liberals apparently hate CEOS and business). The Justice League International fights them, and spouts off corny dialogue, but appears defeated at the issue's end. Before that we get attempts at heart-touching moments in a hospital with various hurt heroes but it all falls flat.

There, I just summed up the comic for you and now you don't have to read it. I guess the message is if you don't like big business and CEOS you might as well join terrorist super-villains to destroy America, because you're already hurting our nation by not supporting big oil, big tobacco, and big-whatever.
1.5 out of 5 stars.

Crashing Into The Finish
There we go, from noir-ish horror to ham-fisted politics. Comics can run the gamut in quality and we sure ran that wheel of life today.

For A Book About A Great Movie, It's Lacking--BFI: Citizen Kane

Eh.
I've enjoyed viewing Citizen Kane at various times in my life, and have reviewed it as well on my blog. I also really enjoy the BFI Film Classics books. Therefore, it would make sense this book should be wonderful, right? Well, color me surprised that I found this to be just average. Perhaps the problem is how the book tries to approach Citizen Kane from a feminist perspective which while interesting may not be the best idea for a flick all about a man. Yes, we get lots of Freud-ish stuff about Kane and his relationship with his mother, etc. etc. but the book doesn't focus on the majestic nature of the movie that is standing right there, instead focusing-in on odd points of psychoanalysis.

I think of Citizen Kane as being at its heart a story about a man who was horribly broken, and no matter how hard he tried to impress people--be it his friends or the nation--he never realized that to fix himself he had to look inside, not outward to the approval of others. I think this book misses that and instead injects a different viewpoint into Kane that while somewhat interesting just isn't what one would expect from the BFI books that give an overall sort of look at the movies. Eh, they can't all be stellar.
2.5 out of 5 stars.

The Unfinished Desolation Jones

Desolation Jones--Warren Ellis' Unfinished and Very Strange Comic

Back in 2005 Warren Ellis started a comic that came out every 2 months called Desolation Jones. The first six issues were illustrated gorgeously by JH Williams III, and then the 2nd arc had completely different art before suddenly ending with the eighth issue. That's right, the ninth just never came out. That was 2007 and now we're in 2012 and with no more Desolation Jones in sight so one might wonder why I read this and/or how I got the seventh and eighth issue that aren't in any trade (clearly). 

Well, one of the malls in my area has a big annual book sale in their parking garage and there was a section with some comics in long boxes. Besides oddly enough having almost every single issues of the Seven Soldier of Victory mini-series besides the Frankenstein one for some reason, there were also all eight issues of Desolation Jones neatly together, for a dollar each. Why so cheap? Well, Desolation Jones wasn't one of Ellis' most popular series it would seem as I've heard a mixture of praise and negativity for the comic. Anyways, I picked up the comics for cheap and read them, and Desolation Jones is indeed a very odd little comic with gorgeous art for the first six issues but a story that isn't always amazing.

Desolation Jones is about a former British Agent who now lives in Los Angeles in a form of open-prison. He is legally invisible in LA and can do various odd-jobs but if he tries to leave the area he will be considered a rogue agent. Along with various other individuals who are labeled as such due to their odd abilities or past government work, Jones does what he can to get by. He's a sickly looking man but he hides a lot of power deep within him. Whatever the Desolation Program did to him that made it so he was the sole survivor definitely created many problems but also gave birth to someone quite dangerous.

 Jones is hired by a man to find a missing reel of Adolph Hitler's pornography. I'm serious. Other former government agents--from the USA--have taken it from this man--and Jones is on the case. There is of course a lot more to the story and we touch upon Ellis' pet subjects like government conspiracies and the like. It's a somewhat interesting story but it feels all over the place with various digressions such as Jones learning about pornography. Again, I'm serious. These is a whole issue where he interviews someone who works for the men who stole the tape who are adult-film directors and she tells Jones all kinds of things about pornography and sex, the human condition, etc. It's almost a little reminiscent of the pervasive sexuality of Grant Morrison's, "The Filth," which is one of my favorite comics (I'm not alone in this, I talked with a fellow comic fan who felt the resemblance too)--but in, "The Filth," the idea of humanity's sexual desire being a primal urge that causes our downfalls is the point (arguably) whereas here I think Ellis just sort of went off on a tangent.

Jones learns about sex in movies.

The thing that keeps all of this from becoming too stale or odd with its trailing off for various bits would have to be JH Williams III incredible art. With a mixture of a realistic painterly-style, abstract scratches, and panel break-downs that boggle the mind, it's just incredible.

In the start of one issue where Jones is flashing-back to how he first became as messed up as he is at the start of the program the art is this incredibly sickening shiny style with a dizzying surreal curve to all the art. We can feel Jones panic as things start to go wrong and he realizes he is in far over his head, and when he snaps back to reality in a cold room and the art style is the opposite with a harsh penciled look the shift is jarring intentionally and highly effective. There is another scene where Jones shoves someone into traffic and its gorgeously rendered with sparse color, black-and-white to show an absence of life, and a healthy dose of red for symbolizing blood. That's just two examples of many.

JH Williams III has my heart.

You don't realize how much of this comic is being carried by the art until you start up with issue #7 and find things don't seem as exciting or fun. Yes, Ellis is still doing his own clever thing with some new plot about a spy and science-fiction books but it still just doesn't seem to have that zing of the first six issues. Perhaps it's the mixture of violence, seriousness, sex, and absurdity that just don't quite mesh well together thematically but a reader could forgive this when looking at JH Williams III's art. Maybe its that Ellis was trying to do too much with his character of Jones and created an odd hodge-podge of interesting ideas that couldn't quite make for a fully fascinating story. It could be having loved so much of Ellis' work it makes sense there is something I think of as a bit off-kilter from his usual supreme output in terms of both quality and tone. Still, this is an interesting comic for all the ways it doesn't work as much the ways that it does. The last issue that came out ended with Jones remarking he wondered what death was like, if it was peaceful, and then passing out for a nap on a couch. It's a fittingly strange end for such an odd little series.

Issues #1-6: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Issues #7-8: 2.5 out of 5 stars (without the amazing art it just dips in quality).

1-800 Mice, Predators Anthology, The Good the Bad And The Godawful

An Absurdist Comic, Predators Anthology, and a Book of Countless Movie Reviews.
Today I've got the strangest assortment of stuff, with graphic novel 1-800 Mice, that is one of the odder  comics I've read in some time, one of the themed anthologies that Accent UK puts out, this one about Predators (in general, not the alien) and a book titled, The Good The Bad And The Godawful, where Kurt Loder does a ton of movie reviews

Utterly Insane...But Weirdly Fascinating

1-800 Mice
I stumbled upon this purely by accident, without knowing that The Comics Journal gave it a positive review which I have now read. No, I was in a bookstore and saw this odd-looking book with its aqua green cover and almost juvenile-yet-refined art style and decided against getting it. Then I thought about it and decided the book just seemed so interestingly weird so when I returned to the same bookstore some weeks later and the book was still there I bought it.

This tells the story of...well, a lot of stuff. It's about a town with trees that control its lava flow, an evil flying entity that plays the banjo, a death-cult, super-skilled sushi chiefs who are also assassins, a telegram-delivery agency of sorts called 1-800 Mice, and much more that all sounds quite insane when you try to explain it. Writer and artist Matthew Thurber must take a lot of hallucination-causing drugs.

When you're reading the story it at first will seem completely unintelligible, but then all of the sudden a strange thing will happen--you start to actually sort of understand what's going on. Yes, it's still sheer insanity, but it is insanity with a very complex world and plot. There is psychological intrigue, suspense, and a good amount of humor. Suddenly this morphs from a cute and silly absurdist tale into something resembling a thriller as the city of Volcano park falls into hysteria from various events and a mystery is solved that could stop the madness, but it's too late and the book ends on a surprising downer.

The drawing also hides a surprising amount of skill at times. Some illustrations look simple and childish, but other times something amazingly intricate and detailed appears showing Thurber knows what he's doing. The complex ideas of self, society, and what exactly it means to have order are these amazingly deep ruminations that develop out of what at first seems like just the silliest comic imaginable.

The dark undertone that seeps into this at-first-glance-adorable story is very neat indeed, as I love the disconnect between what starts out as good-natured fun but develops into something twisted and a little bit evil. Plus, the thing stays crazy the whole time. Yeah, I really enjoyed this even if at the start I found myself infuriated while reading it because things weren't making any sense. It all clicked into place though and I now realize a crazy and creative book is in my hands. It's worth giving a look, even if at first you find it to be like a pile of gibberish--it should start making sense, don't worry. Plus, once it makes sense it sure is cool.
4.5 out of 5 stars.

Some Good, Some Bad, But Overall It Was Enjoyable

Predators Anthology
Accent UK has a thing where they put out themed anthologies--and as with any themed anthology this particular edition has some stories that are real winners and others that could definitely be junked. It's a bit interesting to see what qualifies as a, "Predator," and how they work that idea into certain stories, even if sometimes it is really ham-fisted (Really, story about a pilot who flies planes so well he's called a, "predator?"). Yes, the book has some lame stories, but some quality ones too.

The tales run the gamut of genres from humor to horror, action, adventure, and...well, not really any romance. There are vampires, wild animals, metaphorical predators, and of course stories that point out the most dangerous predator of all could very well be....man (DUN DUN DUN)! I enjoyed this as I do all the Accent UK anthologies, which tend to be reliably good.
3 out of 5 stars.

Movies Can Be Really Good and Brain-Searing Terrible

The Good The Bad And The Godawful: 21st Century Movie Reviews

Kurt Loder may be known by a variety of you for his work on MTV some years ago. The man also is a pretty good movie reviewer, writing about flicks in a way that is both insightful and funny. He talks about blockbuster movies, scary flicks, comedy movies that aren't funny, sci-fi films, and dedicates a section of his book to movies based off of comic books. It's a huge read at over 500 pages and I read it off-and-on over a period of months, dipping into a few pages of reviews here and there when I felt like enjoying Loder's interesting takes on what was once showing at the cineplex but now can be rented (his reviews go up to about early or mid 2011).

I can't say I always agreed with what he thought about every movie (He actually liked the extremely sub-par, "Orphan," really?) but reading Loder's words always gave me some entertainment in the process of going through this book of opinions as varied as the genres reviewed. This is worth picking up.
4 out of 5 stars.


To Conclude

There is some reading material to tide you over for a wee bit. It's all pretty good stuff if you're into absurdity, comic collections, or movies.