Super Sons - Vol.1 When I Grow Up

So here is DC Rebirth an event that I have no awareness of as I haven't been able to keep up with my comics for a few years now due to costs mainly. So this is all new to me and as this is a re-boot/rebirth I am not sure how much of this is just as new for other readers. I did hear that Damien Wayne, aka Robin the Boy Wonder had been killed. I think I heard it on a podcast, maybe Fatman on Batman. Well he's not dead now, I am not sure if in this reality he ever died or not? Comics continuity is difficult enough when you are caught up with things but dipping back into it after a prolonged period away can be quite irksome. I want to know everything my comic geekiness needs to know, but I have to resist the pull, my wallet demands it! Also it now appears that Clark Kent, Superman and Lois Lane had a son. Jon Kent is now 10 years old and has I suppose a 10 year old, half Kryptonian's powers. He seems pretty strong and quick, but he can't fly. He jumps around, much like Superman did in the original stories. I am not sure if his powers will increase as he gets older and his solar battery body soaks up more of the suns rays.

13 year old teenager Damien is an insufferable little git. There I've said it. He's got all the arrogance of Batman but rather than being taciturn about it he bellows it from the highest rooftops practically. He is so full of himself and how good he is at everything and is quite happy to belittle his companions that you might find it hard to like him. Jonathon Kent is younger and has been quite closeted by his parents and is cajoled/fooled into going on a mission with Robin. As a starting story for a new comic it is all about setting up the dynamic between the boys and their parents. The boys are breaking their curfews, Jon was put to bed at 9pm and Damien was ordered not to go on patrol as he hadn't done the studying he was meant to. So they are being naughty children, setting up that typical sidekicks doing if for themselves followed by getting caught conflict. The main story telling is about the interaction between the boys themselves and as Robin states often, they are not friends. They come to blows a couple of times, (although once may have been a ruse to trick an enemy), and bicker for the rest of it. They manage to spend enough time battling the enemies though thankfully and win in the end but don't really seem that much more of a partnership, but hey their father's distrusted each other at first and look what friends they are now. Saying that though this is a new universe and I don't think they are quite at the friendship levels they were previously. These reboots get confusing eh? This may not quite be the start of a beautiful friendship exactly but it's a very early step on the way which I am sure will unfold as the months go by. I've always liked Superboy and Robin comics in the past but these are new guys to me. I never even knew Clark had a son and Damien is almost an unknown to me too and frankly he's a horrible little monster so it will be interesting to see how and if they start to gel.

Nextflix Reviews - Don't Kill It (2016)

Want to know what to 'watch next' on Netflix? Check out my Nextflix Reviews

Dolph Lundgren - The Punisher, Drago, He-Man!

Wow, I just started watching this film on Netflix I put it on in the background whilst doing some other reviews and I gotta say I am hooked now. It's got a great opening 10 minutes with about 5 murders a bar brawl and a sex scene that turns into a nightmare dream then Dolph Lundgren this films star and star of seemingly hundreds of B-movies wakes up in bed with his boots on!! 

So in a nutshell, something is possessing people in the Mississippi town of Chickory Creek and making them kill indiscriminately. If you protect yourself using lethal force then the possession passes on to you and you start killing everyone in sight! Hence the title of the movie Don't Kill It. Dolph plays Jebediah Woodley a demon hunter tracking the demon doing the possessing and in typical fashion is marked down as a lunatic by the local police Chief Dunham (Tony Bentley) and FBI investigator Evelyn Pierce (Kristina Klebe). When his story is shown to tally up with the facts they start to trust him and the hunt for the demon begins. The film doesn't take itself too seriously and although not an outright comedy there are a few moments, like the protracted murder spree where the demon passes around from one would be saviour turned demon to another. All to a soundtrack that is too up-tempo and rocking to be suitable for a serious film. Throw in a subplot of an angel, some religious zealots and some interfering FBI and it's a fun hour and twenty minutes.

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Other cool Dolph Lundgren films

     

Movie review - Freehold

This was not what I was expecting really. The cover made me imagine one of those groups of people locked in the house whilst some unknown force stalks them kind of deals. After watching a couple of movies the same night that really weren't my cup of tea this was a breath of fresh air. (See A Ghost Story & The Ghoul) So rather than a group of party goers trespassing in the wrong creepy mansion, this was the story of Hussein, a bloke living in his slightly pokey but comfortable flat. A cocky estate agent by trade, he seemed like he was working class but had a bit of the gift of the gab and took to the slippery underhanded ways that estate agents are renowned for with aplomb. He was a bit of an Arthur Daley, a little dodgy maybe, but underneath he's alright. Well, of course he's only alright if his underhanded ways haven't affected you somehow. Haven't screwed up your life and left you homeless and vindictive and possibly a bit deranged. Which is what they have done to the man secretly living in various hiding places around his flat and emerging at night to seek his revenge in subtle ways. Ways that escalate as the film progresses, leaving Hussein isolated and paranoid and sick until eventually there is a confrontation.

A couple of interesting points to note. There was an inexplicable rap by one of the actors during the closing credits which I thought was an unusual move. It was in his character and sort of told of his motivation I suppose but it was pretty incongruous if you ask me. At least the other main actor never got into the act and finished off with a rap battle I suppose! Also Javier Botet starred as the home intruder. People may not recognise him out of extensive make-up as he normally plays zombies and demons in films like It, The Mummy and the upcoming Slender Man. Even without make up his gangly frame is almost disturbing!

I quite enjoyed this film, it had some cool acting and believable characters, the premise whilst not 100% original was done well. There was suspense and a bit of sick humour but definitely not for someone who is wanting a horror bloodfest at all.

Movie review - A Ghost Story

"One of 2017's best films", "brilliant and profound", "a near masterpiece", wow great reviews there.

Hmmm.......

Yes it's one of "THOSE" movies. The ones that get rave reviews from... somewhere. I can't make out the names on the poster. I could be cruel or try to be funny and say perhaps they are from The Lunatic Asylum In-patients Review and the Sandwich Short of a Picnic Times but I won't do that. (Although I still made the joke lol, best of both worlds) 

I used to do a fanzine and I'd review everything using my patented 'cup of tea' ratings system where I would mark stuff out of how much it personally appealed to me. Just because I thought this was pointless, boring, silly and pretentious bilge it doesn't mean that it actually is. It just is for me. And my girlfriend and quite a lot of people on IMDB too. I am sure there are plenty of other people who's tastes differ a million miles away from my own who loved it. Cool. Good for them. I never want to meet these people though as their tastes are so diametrically opposed to my own that I fear we'd probably hate one another. Plus they'd probably also smell of wee and dribble a lot. (Joking!) 

First off I will warn you this is not a horror by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it scary or creepy or even trying to be. So what is it trying to do? 

So this is profound apparently but I just found it profoundly silly, if there was a reason that the ghosts are made out of sheets like an unimaginative child's 1st Halloween costume I can't fathom it. There is even a neighbour ghost later in a flowery sheet who our main ghost communicates to telepathically I suppose and we see subtitles of their banal conversation. 

It's also profoundly boring. Even before one of the two characters dies they just mumble to each other about nothing much. After the death they have even less interaction, the one mopes whilst the other watches. Eventually the living person moves out, we see other families come and go. There is a scene where the ghost goes full poltergeist mode for an unknown reason and starts throwing plates around, scaring the crap out've a mother and her children. Later during a party scene in the house the usual drunk/stoned blowhard nonsense philosopher gives a turgid diatribe on their thoughts of life, the universe and everything and on how we are all but motes of dust in the cosmic wind blah blah blah. It was like one of those typical deep sounding conversations you have when you are drunk and wake up and think, "blimey we didn't half talk rubbish last night!"

Then the film just gets profoundly ridiculous and then it ends and not a moment too soon just like this review!! 😜

Art

I can't draw, damn I wish that I could 😢 I think I probably have some of my terrible art attempts around somewhere at home as I never really throw away anything. I will scan up any worthy attempts that I see here, although most of them will be stick figure wars cos I did a ton of them back in the day. I will also post up links to any cool art pages that I see anywhere if you guys wanna check it out. 

Actually I think I might even pick up a cheap art book from Amazon and see if I can teach myself to draw.... hmm that might be a good idea for a project!!

So here is a great page on Facebook you might want to check out, I found it through the Geek Asylum group on Facebook. This guy Jim Williams does a fair few conventions and takes commissions too so go check out his page

Iconic Art

Inspired by a picture by Mike Deodato

Movie review - It

This was definitely the Horror hit from last year, the movie remake of the 1990 mini-series based on the 1986 book by Horror master Stephen King. I remember liking the TV series a lot back in the day although I am sure I only watched it once. I actually thought it had been a film back in 1990 that's how long ago I watched it I didn't even remember what the format of it was. I wonder if it's the 1st instance of the killer clown trope, (see also). I know it's certainly the most well known and probably had a big influence on the killer clown hoaxing epidemic that seemed to be all over the news in 2016.

The story is as I remembered it from when I saw it back in the day, a group of kids (The Losers Club) in Derry, Maine are menaced by the local bully Henry Bowers and his gang. This is small potatoes though as they are also being plagued by a demonic ghost clown called Pennywise who steals away Georgie the little brother of Bill Denbrough. He troubles them with visions of what they fear the most, teasing Bill that his brother is floating down there in the sewers. Unable to get the assistance of adults they vow to battle It and try to recover Georgie from the evil entity's lair. They discover that Pennywise has been plaguing the community intermittently for centuries emerging every 27 years. This is the same time period as the novel but for some reason it was changed to 30 in the TV serial.

The fact that this movie comes 27 years after the TV 2-parter is quite a good touch I think and as you'd imagine with the advances in special effects over that period Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise has a whole load more nasty visual tricks up his sleeves that Tim Curry's version of the clown had back in 1990. He uses a number of nasty, bloody visions to terrorize the children as installing fear in them is akin to "salting the meat" making them more tasty I imagine. There is something more unsettling about seeing children fighting for their lives but there is also a bit of a disconnect in my mind, I kept thinking of it a children's adventure story like Goonies or something as there are no adult characters involved in the battle with the clown.

In the 1990 series it was actually a double movie length 2-parter screened over subsequent evenings, for this 2017 remake we have to wait till September 6th 2019 for the denouement. That's quite annoying if you ask me but at least it's not 27 years I suppose! It's a bit odd though as there is a quote on Wikipedia saying it is set 30 years after the original with the kids all grown up, back to kill It for good. They don't seem to have decided on their time line, is it every 27 or 30 years that It emerges from hibernation to feast?

Maybe the wounded It needed 3 more years hibernation to recover?

Maybe I am just getting my facts muddled!

I do think it's rather a long gap between parts 1 and 2 though but who knows maybe in 27 (30?) years time if I am still around I'll be reviewing a 3rd reimagining of the novel.

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Classic Toys - Royal Mail stamp set

The Gemini Brothers in Space

Back in early 2014 I made a funny/silly Sci-Fi serial with my nephews and other members of my family and here it is. Have a good listen please and share it with your friends if you enjoy it.

Here is an interview I got my nephews to do with me

Each episode came with a silly advertisement/sponsor which I made some pictures for, so I will post those here too!

Episode 1 - Alien Abduction

Episode 2 - Close Encounter

Episode 3 - Emperor Fra

Episode 4 - Laser Battle

Episode 5 - No Escape

Episode 6 - Terrible Torture

Episode 7 - No Mercy


Episode 8 - Mad Medicine

Episode 9 - Dylthan Megabeast


Episode 10 - Final Fight

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If you have checked out the show you may well realise that it took a heck of a lot of influence from Flash Gordon. I used to love the old Buster Crabbe 30's series as a kid in the 70/80's when it was played on teatime television. They used to play that and King of the Rocket Men and Champion The Wonder Horse in the same teatime slot if my memory serves me correctly. I have listened to the original radio serial online too. Also the main factor was the film from 1980 with Sam Jones and Max Von Sydow, which I watched at the cinema and I am always happy to be the alt-geek and say that I much preferred it to Star Wars. In fact Star Wars may never have happened if George Lucas had managed to get the rights to film Flash like he originally wanted.

Flash Gordon was created  as a newspaper strip in 1934 by Alex Raymond for King Features Syndicate as a rival to the already popular Buck Rogers, you may recall there was a TV series of that as well, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and of course the parody starring Daffy Duck called Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a half Century. The strip proved very popular and soon spawned many spin-off items to cash in on the brand including pop-up books, colouring books, toy spaceships and rayguns. That kind of surprised me as I didn't realise that kind of cynical product tie-in was such an old trend. I assumed it started later than that for some reason but obviously not! In the last episode of my Gemini Brothers show I did parody it in the joke advert but I thought I was projecting a later trend. King also sold the strip to other papers around the World, 130 papers carried the story at one time with a few making slight changes to suit the local market. For example in Australia he was Speed Gordon as 'Flash' had negative connotations meaning 'overly showy' and was likened with dishonesty. During war time some countries stopped running the strip but it reemerged in those territories after it ended. In 1939 there was even a ride with his name on it at the famous New York World's Fair. Reading about it makes it sound a bit like the Nuka Galaxy Ride from the NukaWorld add-on from Fallout 4

Alex Raymond's art and costumes for Flash inspired the Superhero genre too, the art of both Superman and Batman were influenced by his work and Hawkman was based on the Hawkmen race who was led by Prince Vultan who was played so memorably by Brian Blessed in the 1980 film.

The radio serials started in 1935 with 2 series totaling 100 shows in all. It starred Gale Gordon as Flash and stuck closely at first to the strip in regards story but later veered off with Flash, Dale and Zarkov visiting Atlantis! There have been 2 live-action TV series one ran 1954-55 and the latest from 2007/8, it was cancelled after one season which was a real shame. Maybe Flash and the concepts of this type of clean cut, all American hero are no longer resonant with the general public. There have also been 4 animated series for the space hero as well and a number of comic books over the years, the most recent being a series from Dark Horse in 2010 and from Dynamite Entertainment in 2011.

I already mentioned the film from 1980, I saw that in the cinema and I even had the Pannini sticker album which I later sold on Ebay I think, curse my foolishness :( I remember drawing a massive space battle based on the attack on Rocket Ship Ajax, I think I might still have that somewhere!! If I find it I will post the picture up here :D

There are meant to be 2 new films of the hero in development at the moment with scripts being written, so fingers crossed we will see him fighting the good fight some time soon.

       

Trinity - Vol.1 Better Together

As mentioned before I had to quit buying comics a little while back due to various reasons and so now I only get to read new books after people buy stuff for me off of my Christmas and birthday lists. Here's the 1st of 4 books my dad picked up for me this year. I just tell him to go to my old comic book shop near where he lives and ask for any new DC books from the last couple of years. I am not up to date with current events anymore but I kind of think this is a re-re-launch of the DC Universe!! I swear they were just relaunching it when I had to quit and this is another rebirth since then, I could be wrong! 

There was a previous run of Trinity books featuring the 3 premier DC heroes back when I was still collecting. I think it was a weekly book, following on from the 52 comic run I believe. So I am used to seeing the 3 characters in a series together. However reading this with the stuff that has changed the whole chemistry seems different than it did before. In the old books they were old friends, here it seems a bit less certain, like they are not quite so familiar with each other. It seems as if this is a pretty new Superman as far as Batman & Wonder Woman are concerned. This Supes looks like the old fellow to me but I think there was a younger,  brasher, less compassionate version for a while. I think that Wonder Woman was in a relationship with that version of the hero and that he died! This new guy is married to Lois Lane and they have a son who's about 10 years old! I don't know if the story is told anywhere of his 1st decade and I know I won't be able to afford to buy all the books I am missing to find out! Still it makes for fun reading to pick up what titbits of information I can to find out what has transpired since last I read them. 

I don't want to post any spoilers or plot stuff too much, so I will keep it vague. Something odd starts happening to the team; is it some kind of weird time distortion? They start seeing visions or have they been transported in time somehow. All three travel together to significant events in each of their respective pasts. In each location they travel to a part of the characters histories is explored and realisation of essential truths about their characters are made and important threads from their lives are resolved. Basically it's a way to get to know what drives them and to get a view of what makes them what they are. There is also a lot of side chat, where the dynamics of their relationships with each other are explored. It's basically reintroducing the characters to the readers again in a clever way. I must be a bit of a comics nut or else this plot device has been used a few too many times but I figured out what was causing the events to happen before the reveal. 

This volume collects together issues 1 - 6 of the series, it was written and partially drawn by Francis Manapul, a name I am not familiar with, I imagine they are a new force on the scene as I don't recall the name at all. I enjoyed the read, it had cool characterization, nice action, great art but I saw it more of a re-introduction to the characters and their interplay and was more of a taste of things to come really. Now we know how they all are with each other, future stories can concentrate on further development and kicking the butts of some new super villains. I notice that Vol. 2 is available also with a pretty kick butt cover so that's going on my wishlist. :)

Diana, where can people buy these Trinity Volumes from??

      

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples

I had to stop buying comic books regularly a couple of years back for various reasons so for birthdays and Christmas it is always nice to get something new. I added these randomly to my Amazon wishlist and my girlfriend picked them up for me. I'd not heard of them before, I'd not even really read a review of them. I recognised the writer name from somewhere and the art looked cool enough. To be honest I thought it was by the same guy who did Fables and that with what looked like an angel and a demon it would be similar to those books which I own quite a few of and enjoyed a lot. It turned out that my silly brain was wrong anyway, Fables is by Bill Willingham, this is Brian K. Vaughan but it's not a problem as he did the Y: The Last Man books that I own the set of and they are cool as heck so it's all good.

As I said with 1st appearances I was expecting a story of an angel and a demon on the run from hell & heaven, something similar to an old Hellblazer run of comics and I'm pretty sure that angel/demon love story on the run is almost a bit of a trope by now. It turned out I was wrong anyway it's not a supernatural tale at all, although it does have magic in it, these are aliens. The winged woman is Alana from Landfall and Marko the horned fellow is from Landfall's moon Wreath. The two races have been at war for an unspecified but extremely long time. The races hatred has spread across the solar system with their war being  outsourced to encompass many worlds whilst the original protagonists planets have returned to relative peace.

Our story starts on the planet Cleave with the birth of the narrator who is Alana & Marko's daughter. We hear everything from her point of view as though she is reminiscing sometime in the future. It's quite an unusual move and implies that whatever happens she survives but I can't help wondering if there is going to be some almighty twist in there somewhere somehow. Since having my mind blown over the narrator of an old book called Enigma I don't take anything for granted anymore when it comes to these cunning comic book writers. Within minutes of her birth agents from both their planets turn up to apprehend them only to kill each other's forces whilst our new parents and child escape. She's deserted from her planet's army and freed him, a prisoner who she was supposed to be guarding and both of their people's want them eliminated and their child captured. Wreath hire freelancers The Will and The Stalk to track them down and Landfall send Prince Robot IV. Things escalate, new allies and enemies are made and people from their past are introduced and the story of how they met, fell in love and then went on the run is soon revealed in flashbacks. There is a lot more history to come in future books I am sure as we learn more about these characters. It's not just the main protagonists with a story, most of the supporting cast have well realised motivation and history as well, making for a cast of characters that are engaging and interesting and make you invest emotionally in them. There is a character that speaks just one word, not much to get you to be interested in them you'd think but you'd be wrong, when they get into some serious peril I was thinking, "Oh no!! Don't kill them!! Not.......(no spoilers here)"

The exciting thing too for me is that this is a new world created for this story, it doesn't exist in an already extant comic book universe so we don't know what it's rules are yet. There is magic we've seen that and learnt a couple of it's rules in this world. We know there's all kinds of aliens beings and strange creatures and ghosts, the universe is a BIG place and they are abroad in it pursued by two groups both intent on their capture and/or deaths. Surviving won't be easy especially as Marko is a conscientious objector who has vowed to never use violence again. Nobody is safe, any character could potentially die, you can't take anything for granted in this book.

The book is aimed for an older audience, with nudity, mature themes, sex and some gore too. There is a giant that pops up at one time and it's quite a sight!! Let's just say that if he was from a Grimm's fairy tale his catchphrase would be Fee Fie Scro-tum and I'll let you imagine the rest.

I see there are about 8 books of this on sale already and I am going to be adding them to my future wants list for sure. This is the kind of book you end up recommending to friends, family and fellow geeks. I will be lending these to my big brother for sure. 

Saga, it may share it's name with a holiday company that caters for older folk but this is no sedate trip to Majorca, this is a thrill ride across the galaxy and I can't wait to see what scrapes they get into along the way.