Comic anthologies with a theme aren’t new, but when has there ever been a comic anthology on roller derby? Well, never really. I was pleased to discover the new book from Oni Press titled, Jam! Tales From the World of Roller Derby featuring stories and art from folks like Eric Powell (the Goon), Ray Fawkes, (the Apocalypstix) , and Rick Lacy (the Venture Bros.) as they team up with real life roller derby pros.
The stories range from slice of life portrayals of Roller Derby girls to cartoonish, adventurous fun. Each story has its own distinct flavor and is a great show case for all of the contributing artists and writers. For those of you not familiar with Roller Derby, it’s a sport that involves roller skates, a circular banked track, and is primarily a sport for ladies with a touch of DIY punk rock aesthetic. Points are scored when a player known as a jammer laps a member of the opposing team. Scoring points isn’t easy as a jammer has to contend with defensive players known as blockers who’s goal is to knock you down by any means necessary. Lost? I suggest you check out St. Louis’ own pro roller derby team, the Arch Rival Roller Girls. I’m sure they can show you how it’s done.
Another fun fact about this book: It features a story by former Star Clipper manager April (Chewblocka) Bozada- Armstrong titled Poor Frankie. Seriously, this is a super fun book!
How many comic book movies are too many comic book movies? The answer comes in the name Jonah Hex, a film that had close to no demand to be brought to the silver screen, but was made with the DC seal of approval, what should be a shining endorsement in the day and age of comic book movies. Unfortunately, it’s seal now stands for, “comic book adaptation equals quick return on investment,” and that wasn’t even true since Jonah Hex was unequivocally the first box office bomb of 2010, ranking 8th in its opening weekend and only generating a meager (relative to summer blockbuster standard, at least) $5.8 million. Even with the tough guy acting chops of Josh Brolin, the T&A of Megan Fox (sadly one of the biggest attractions of the Transformers films), and odd-ball draw of John Malkovich (with his role being widely panned as the worst of his career), Jonah Hex didn’t even come close to ranking in the top 5 films of its weekend. The apathy towards the film was so abysmal that an enter-to-win box for free tickets at Star Clipper only had a pathetic 14 entries, with only 3 customers actually picking their free tickets up. Who knows if they actually used the passes? When there is this type of indifference towards a film like Jonah Hex, what does it say about the state of comic book movies?
This was not the first instance this summer of a general lack of interest towards comic book films. Kick Ass got the summer started and though it rank number one at the box office in its opening weekend it just barely won the top position, which is unfortunate because I really liked this one. The Loser was another movie that came and went without any real understanding as to why it was made in the first place (any producer that thought a film titled The Losers would resonate with a middle-America audience needs to be fired immediately). Obviously, Iron Man 2 is the exception of this argument, being that it is the top film of the summer thus far. By now, it should be clear however that for every good comic film that comes out, the market is also oversaturated with multiple mediocre films to flat out failures. I think this rush for a quick short-term profit generated by a completely forgettable film is only going to hurt the comic industry in the long run, as is being demonstrated for the lack of interest in the source material i.e. comics (people just weren’t clamoring for the Losers section since the rushed film only created a bad taste for it’s source).
There are a lot of issues here… First and foremost, if there is no demand for a comic-to-film adaptation i.e. Jonah Hex, why make it? That money could have been better spent elsewhere. A perfect use would be for better marketing of comic films to get it past the fanboy audience. Kick Ass suffered from a confusing marketing campaign that made the film look like a light-hearted comic book romp, not the disturbing Tarentino-esque black comedy that it actually was. The Losers bombed because of its name alone. It might appeal to the comic shop niche, but no beer drinking, good old boy is going to want to see a film about a bunch of losers even if they do totally kick ass. All this time and effort should really be used to make sure the hits aren’t just flash in the pans, but are classics. Yeah, Iron Man 2 was good, but that last fight scene left a little something to be desired. It is great comics are being considered a legitimate source for mainstream popcorn-gratification, but lets hope the film industry doesn’t get too bogged down in mediocrity or Jonah Hex’s slogan “Revenge just got ugly” might take on a whole new meaning for the comic industry as people stay away in droves.
Mike Grell’s Warlord holds a special place in my heart. Actually, all of Mike Grell’s work holds a special place in my heart. Starslayer is a stone-cold classic as far as I’m concerned, and it’s probably my favorite of his books (but that may be because it’s the first Grell book I encountered; Celtic warrior becomes a rollicking space pirate complete with robot parrot is the sort of comic a young me could really get behind), but this current edition of Warlord has really come into its own in the past six months. Of course, I’m grading on a curve — it’s Mike Grell, people. I cut him some slack. I’m bummed that this month’s issue is the final one, but what are you gonna do? Warlord just wasn’t made for these times.
When DC relaunched the title last year, it started a little slowly. The book was hurt by the fact that Grell was only writing it, not drawing it; this is his world and these are his characters, and his storytelling style is inimitable. Grell is the pulpiest of pulp pastichers, and I mean that as glowing praise. The obvious pulp parallels are in subject matter: Modern man (’70s vintage modern, that is) Travis Morgan ends up in Skartaris, the primitive world hidden at the center of our world, and not only survives the predations of dinosaurs, marauding tribesmen, evil wizards, ancient Atlantean science and a bevy of beautiful women in scanty outfits, he conquers all by dint of his strength and his sword. That’s pretty much from the Edgar Rice Burroughs/Talbot Mundy playbook, which means good comic books as far as I’m concerned.
But when Grell draws the book, the pacing ratchets up to a pulp-approved whiplash. Grell is an artist from the old school — he approaches his story in terms of individual issues, not as stops along the way to a collected softcover. Aside from the traditional recap of what happened previously, there are no wasted panels, no lengthy exposition, no padding of any kind; things happen, and they happen rapidly. It takes some getting used to if you’re accustomed to reading calorie-free issues that exist only to set up something that’s not going to be resolved for another six months. In four issues Grell has revivified classic arch-villain Deimos, destroyed Warlord’s home base city of Shamballah, revealed longtime supporting character Tinder as Travis’ son (whom Travis has believed dead for years), had Tinder kill Travis in a duel and set the stage for an imminent alien invasion of Earth and Skartaris — and that’s leaving out some stuff.
Somehow, Grell is going to wrap up all this up to his satisfaction in one more issue, and then Warlord goes away again. I’m not holding out hope for a second Warlord volume of Showcase Presents, either. It’s too bad. I’ll quickly bounce back if Grell can convince IDW to publish Starslayer again, though. What I wouldn’t give for a space faring Celtic barbarian pirate monthly series…
For this month, I want to focus on this cool little movie from 1995 called, Judge Dredd. Maybe you’ve heard of it? The character of Judge Dredd can be traced back to 1977 in first appearance in issue number 2 of 2000 AD, a British comic anthology strip. His actual creation makes for an interesting story of deceit, backstabbing, cons, and whatnot… But that’s for another time… For now, I want to talk about the movie that starred Sylvester Stallone and Armand Assante. This was one of those movies where, at the time of it’s release, I lacked much appreciation. You see, I knew that Dredd was a comic book character and that he had a cool looking helmet, but that was about it. When I saw the movie in theaters, I was mostly just excited to see a new Stallone movie, plus I thought his gun was really cool. But is that enough reason for this to be one of my favorite adaptions? Surely not. But I’ll certainly give it a shot as to why it is.
You see, I love violent media. I love to see gunshots, explosions, high speed chases, one liners, and “battle damage” by the end of the movie. This movie had it all, and then some. It took all these great things then added other cool stuff like robots, clones, conspiracies, Rob Schneider (I think he’s funny), a narration from James Earl Jones, and the future… All these things put together makes for an awesome concoction. But I can’t help but to feel that even with all that, this film goes under appreciated. The movie kinda/sorta followed a few storylines from the comic… I suppose one could say the movie was an amalgam of a few early storylines, most prominent of which was the 2nd storyline that dealt with Judge Dredd’s criminal brother, Rico (as played by Armand Assante… That’s a fun name to say.). Anyway, the premise of the film begins with the idea that in the future (2139), everyone lives in a few Mega Cities across the world, seeing as most of the world is now a barren desert filled bandits and mutants. In the Mega Cities, there is a police force known as Judges, that have the authority to arrest, trial, and even execute on site. As it was, Judge Dredd happened to have a bit of a reputation as the worst Judge to come across if you were a criminal. Very by the book and very unforgiving, it was these things that made him the best of the best. And so the movie plays out like that until Rico breaks out of prison and goes on a killing spree while under the guise of being a Judge. Eventually, Dredd is framed for Rico’s crimes and is sent off to prison, leaving a few loyal Judges left to find out what is really going on, as well as stopping the crazed Rico from going through with his sinister plans. How is that not cool?
Well, some Dredd fans out there didn’t think it was cool at all, despite the filmmakers putting in a ton of effort to make the comic world appear as it did in the pages of 2000 AD. You see, even though the characters and the sets were correct and translated well for the most part, there were some gripes here and there about the finer points of the comic not making the translation. The biggest of which was that Dredd was always taking his helmet off. You see, in the comic, he rarely ever takes his helmet off, and when he does, his face is typically obscured. But it’s like, if he never took his helmet off in the movie, you’d never know it was Stallone under there… Well, unless you listened to the guy, but even then, one could argue that it would’ve just been a voice over. Another big thing was that the love interest for Dredd was another Judge, by the name of Hershey (played by Diane Lane). That was a no-no in the comics. Judges were forbidden have any sort of romance, be it with another Judge or anyone else. But hey, I understand the change. It’s hard to get a big budget ($85 million) movie made without the aspect of love in the film. But you know what? This was a very cool action movie. So what if it wasn’t accurate? In 1995, I needed to know who the law was, and this movie let me know who it was. It was Judge Dredd.
Now, I realize that I didn’t really go into the animatronics, effects work, set design, and whatnot… And that’s a shame on my part, because the film has a lot of great technical things about it. So, if you’ve never seen the movie before, use this as an opportunity to see the great work that a lot of people put into this movie. And please, don’t let the pronunciation of the word, “Law”, keep you from enjoying the movie. There was a lot of potential in this movie, some of which was actually met. Give it a chance, and then look forward to the new Judge Dredd film that is in the process of being made. Granted, its main writer absolutely hated the film I’m writing about, but at least he has the passion. I look forward to the movie he puts out, but even then, the movie that I wrote about this day, will always be one of my favorites. See ya next time!
While I was writing about MANTIS last time, I got to thinking about other sub-par Super-hero TV shows from the 90’s and kicked myself for not remembering Night Man. For those of you too young to remember, Night Man was a character from Malibu comics’ Ultraverse line that came along during the early 1990’s. The Ultraverse brought us characters like the Sludge, Hardcase, and steroid poster boy Prime, but didn’t survive the decade once Malibu was bought by Marvel. Of all these characters, only the Night Man was apparently worthy of wider exposure through the medium of television well after the character had any relevance.
In the comic universe, Night Man wasn’t that bad a story, but on the small screen it was less than stellar. The series centers around Johnny Domino, saxophonist from San Francisco who when struck by lightening in a cable car accident discovers he has the ability to recognize evil, but loses the ability to sleep. Thus is born the Night Man. One little known aspect of the show is that the character of Prof Jonathan Chase, who was the lead character in the short lived 1983 series Manimal. The Night Man series can almost be considered a continuation of Manimal in that aspect. What surprised me about this series is that Night Man managed to earn itself a second season. I remember when I was a teenager and the opening credits would start at around midnight or one in the morning with that hot sax instrumental and I would quickly try to find something else to watch, but first I just had to get through the opening sequence. It was bad even by 1997 standards.
Just so you know, this incarnation of the Night Man is not to be confused with the character created by Charlie Kelly (Local businessman and cat enthusiast) from the show It’s Always
Sunny In Philadelphia. That Night Man is the fighter of the Day Man, champion of the sun, master of karate and friendship for everyone.
Here we are with the Third Update for Marvel Vs Capcom 3. This time, I have some videos for you. Straight from E3 (The Electronics Entertainment Expo), I bring you the new extended trailer for the video game, as well as one game play video. As of typing this, there are still only 10 characters that have been announced for this game; Ryu (Streetfighter), Morrigan (Darkstalkers), Chris Redfield (Resident Evil), Dante (Devil May Cry), Felicia (Darkstalkers), Hulk, Iron Man, Wolverine, Deadpool, and THE Captain America. So, no new news in that department. Just awesome game play. For those of you not familiar with the Marvel Vs Capcom series, I warn you, be prepared for bright colors and fast action. That’s it. So enjoy the trailer, then enjoy match.
Oh yeah, looks like I lied. There is one more character… Surprise Villain! You gotta watch the trailer to see who I’m talking about… Anyway, here’s the other video!
As, you’ll have noticed, I chose a video where Freedom reigned over everything else. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this update. See ya next time.
I don’t know whether I should be ashamed of this bit of obscure knowledge or not, but does anyone remember the short lived Fox series MANTIS? Don’t feel too bad if you don’t. I only bring it up because my memory was refreshed while flipping through one of my old comics from that time. For one month in 1994, MANTIS received the coveted inside cover ad space just before the first page of comic story. The same space that was occupied by ads from films like Meteor Man and the Super Mario Brothers movie from around the same time.
The show itself attempted to introduce a new super-hero into popular culture, which has not been an easy task in the past 20 years. We can look back now and laugh a bit about how dated it looks, but I give it marks for effort when it comes to putting sci-fi super-heroics in prime time on a major network which happened in a time when shows like that looked really bad. For those unfamiliar, MANTIS (or Mechanically Automated NeuroTransmitter Interactive System) was the story of scientist Miles Hawkins who becomes paralyzed from the waist down as a result of a criminals bullet severing his spine. Hawkins invents a mechanical exo-skeleton which gives him the ability to walk (Why didn’t he patent it and let other paralyzed people benefit?) and decides to us his new suit to fight crime. Like Batman with more of a tech-savvy sci-fi flair, MANTIS uses an array of gadgets as well as a vehicle called the Chrysalid which can fly as well as double up as a submarine. Not too surprisingly, the show lasted one season with 2 unaired episodes premiering on the then Sci-Fi channel (now Sy Fy) I’m going to go ahead and spoil it for you here: MANTIS dies in the last episode.
I give the show an A for effort considering the era it was released, but sadly it is relegated to the realm of 90’s nostalgia. I had totally forgotten about it until I cracked open that comic book from 1994. Most attempts at super-hero shows in the late 80’s and the early 90’s fell short on quality as further evidenced by shows like Nightman, but that’s a story for next time.
It’s almost been a year since I last talked about Hack/Slash, the awesome comic about a serial-killer killer, and in that time, it’s had it’s ups and downs. Of particular note, the creation of Mary Shelly Lovecraft (MSL) as a reality altering villain that was banished from her own dimension. Now, MSL broke the rules of the established story and concept. Until her arrival, the story generally stuck to Cassie Hack (main character) killing freshly resurrected fiends, which obviously can’t be the only thing that occurs in the series… And for awhile there was the introduction of an idea that these “slashers” were being created by a secret society as well as the idea of a “slasher redemption” in one of the recurring killers. These were good things. And then there was the “Godbox” storyline… And honestly, I was greatly disappointed in that arc. While it was certainly cool that Tim Seeley (Creator and Writer) introduced Fantomah (The First Female Superhero from back in 1940) as a part of the history of the series, it also introduced superheroes… The idea was that Godbox was actually a siphon created to steal the various powers of Fantomah and imbue them into regular folks. Now, by all means, that’s a cool idea, and its one that I think could’ve made for it’s own series, but I feel that it took away from the magic of Hack/Slash. So imagine my delight, when it was announced that Hack/Slash would be moving from Publisher DDP to Image Comics and the first order of business would be to go back to Cassie’s beginnings to establish her to a new audience.
Now, this isn’t a reboot… I believe that whatever has happened in the various minis and main series still count as canon, so that’s a plus and it let’s anyone who hasn’t yet read the series to be able purchase the trades and not feel like they’re wasting their time. So then, what is this new #1? Well, Hack/Slash: My First Maniac, follows our main character immediately after she kills her own murderous resurrected mother and the aftermath of the murder spree at her high school. Cassie is still a mousy loner and she’s still being picked on by her “peers”. What we get to witness here, which was only glossed over in the past, is her transformation from geek to badass. First, by training her body and dealing with her bullies and eventually abandoning her foster parents and home to hunt down her first slasher that isn’t her mother. And that’s just in issue one.
Anyway, we’ve got some solid art from Daniel Leister (Return to Wonderland), great colors from Mark Englert (Capes) especially for the more gruesome stuff. Plus there’s some interesting crayon drawings within the journal narrative of the book which looks to have been done by whom I can only assume is Mark Englert’s daughter, Beata Englert. Nice touch. And with the move to Image, Seeley uses that to his advantage, using one of Image’s flagship characters as a means to suggest that there may possibly be a crossover with the character… Although, I hope not…. Or at least, not in the mainstream Image continuity. Keep it simple. But that aside, My First Maniac brings joy to my inner horror fiend. Tim Seeley is knows what he’s doing, so trust him, pick up the book, buy it, then wait for the next one. Repeat. See ya.
It’s not often that video game adaptations of comics or movies, or more specifically comic book movies, turns out good. More often than not they’re epic failures. From the looks of the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World video game trailer though, it looks like for once someone got it right. The side scrolling beat em’ up allows for 4 players, including the main cast of the graphic novels Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers, Kim Pine and Stephen Stills loosely following the plot of defeating Ramona Flower’s seven evil ex-boyfriends. The game will be released as a timed downloadable exclusive this August from the Playstation Network and Xbox Live.
Really the best way to bast in it’s epic epicness is to watch the game trailer:
Fleet also asked that I post game creator Paul Robertson’s early animation called “Pirate Baby’s Cabana Street Fight,” which is equally awesome:
What does a seedy horror show host named Baron Von Shock and a deadly fortune-teller named the Unforgiving Eye have in common? Nothing really, except they both are characters from new comics released from Image in the last month. It’s curious that two really terrific horror mini-series debuted in the middle of May and June, and weren’t held back for a potential stronger October release. Still, it’s nice to have two really strong new summer horror series in “The Bulletproof Coffin” and Rob Zombie’s “Whatever Happened to Baron Von Shock” without having to wait for the overindulgent halloween season to get your horror fix.
“The Bulletproof Coffin” is the first single issue series I’ve legitimately wanted to add to my holds in a long time. The main story is about a repo-man named Steve who cleans out the houses of the recently deceased. On one spooky repossession, Steve comes across a treasure trove of goodies owned by an isolated shut-in, with everything from vintage ray-guns, frankenstein masks, and a lot of lost 50s Golden Nugget comics (a send-up to pre-comic code EC comics) that aren’t actually suppose to exist. Keeping the comics as his own, the story quickly becomes a comic within a comic and Steve reads “The Unforgiving Eye,” the frightening tale of sideshow fortune-teller who wears a giant eyeball mask. While reading the comic in the attic of his home, two ghostly figures are also on the hunt to collect the lost comics and Steve’s very life could be in jeopardy.
Illustrated by Shaky Kane, who delivers a tight mix of Michael Alred and Los Bros Hernandez styles, “The Bulletproof Coffin” is a richly conceived first effort from writer David Hine. It comes complete with faux-advertisements on the back cover for “Darling Lab Monkeys” (only $15.00!) and a back-up history of the fictional Golden Nugget comics. In fact, there is only one actually advertisement (for Image’s Elephantmen) in the entire comic. This is a hard one to follow, especially since in my opinion this is everything a comic should be.
Fortunately, Rob Zombie’s “Whatever Happened To Baron Von Shock” also delivers. I’ve had mixed feelings about Rob Zombie for a long time. When I was a teen, I liked White Zombie but lost interest altogether when he embarked on his solo career (without the freakiness of lead guitarist J. I initially saw Zombie’s solo act as a novelty). However, over the years I’ve really come to find a new-found appreciation for most everything Rob Zombie has done, from his solo albums to his film career. Comics seem like a natural extension for Zombie, and my only real disappointment is that Zombie didn’t draw “Baron Von Shock” himself (Though that probably would have taken forever, much like his mural for The Headbangers Ball did).
“Baron Von Shock” is quintessential Zombie. It follows a loser film assistant named Leon Stokes who haphazardly becomes a famous horror show host (Much like Zombie on AMC Fearfest) for his shock value and depravity. More making fun of the horror films than endorsing them, Baron Von Shock, as he now calls himself, is really only interested in the celebrity indulgences that come with quick fame: drugs and women. The question is how long can his fame last without burning out, and how extreme will he have to make the show to maintain this celebrity. The dialogue is distinctive, and reads much like Zombie’s film characters sound, particularly those in “The Devil’s Rejects.” The art by Donny Hadinidjaja and Val Staples isn’t as recognizable as Zombie’s own style, but is fitting for the story and a talent in their own right.
Both comics are great for those of you who are spooky children in an era where everyone else is seduced be Twilights vampire romance.
One of my favorite bookstores in St. Louis. Star Clipper offers not only the best selection of comic books and graphic novels in the city, but also a cornucopia of art, design and pop-culture related books and magazines. 
