GENETIC FREAK ONLINE

Enter Coachmatt!

2008-06-01T21:54:00.005+08:00

Work has been eating me alive so I apologize once again for the lengthy amount of time it took to make another update. Thank goodness for friends and so now this site will get to have new contents again. We may not have the exact same taste for stuff but his choices are ones that I highly respect and we do kind of influence each other with our recommendations.

Okay I need to cut this short now and let him take over, Newsarama regulars know him as the poster Coachmatt and here's his first attempt at a review of The Thing series a few years back by Marvel.

The Thing

by Matthew Cradic or as you may know me, the poster formerly know as coachmatt05

It was the second Sunday in February back in 2006. I had been sitting in the car with my brother for half an hour, despite the snowfall accumulating on the ground, waiting to be the first one in the shop. My LCS was having its annual 75% off sale right before they took inventory. The less stuff in the store, the less stuff they'd have to pay taxes on. As usual, I came prepared to blow a large sum of money on comics. Seriously, at that kind of a discount you'd be a fool to not take advantage. The doors open and I attack the trade paperback racks like a man possessed. I claimed three volumes of Thor Visionaries: Walt Simonson for $5 a piece within the first two minutes. After that I moved to finish off my collection of Sandman trades. Little did I know that on that day I'd find a book that would become very important to me.

As I jetted around the shop I started to amass an ungodly stack of books. My brother happened across something that he decided he wanted. It was The Thing issue 1. I turned my nose up at it suspecting it to be one of the many subpar miniseries that Marvel puts out around the time a movie comes out. I questioned him on it, tried to get him to find something else, but that was what he wanted. After thinking about it again, I was glad that he was interested in a book that didn't have Wolverine in it. On the rack happened to be the second and third issues of this book. They were newer releases, but I was able to talk the owner into letting us have them at the same discount as all the back issues and trades. There was another book called Jonah Hex there that my brother wanted at the time. I simply laughed and told him that it was a western comic put out by DC. I mean, it couldn't have been good, right? You guys will hear lots more about ol' Jonah later. Anyways, looking back, I find it ironic that the cheapest books I bought turned out to be some of my all time favorites.

After leaving the comic shop I sped home with a back seat full of trades, back issues, and ginger ale. It took my brother and myself all of five minutes to unload all the items from our shopping spree and set them on the shelves in my room. I read some of this, skimmed some of that. Not really focusing on any one thing. I believe that I had just finished reading some horrific Spidey issue from the Other when my brother came into my room and told me that The Thing was actually pretty good and that I should give it a try. In an attempt to get the bitter taste of bad Spidey out of my mouth, I open up a fresh two liter of ginger ale and begin to read The Thing issue 1. I was hooked by the tenth page. Dan Slott was a genius! He captured everything that I had always loved about The Thing: the dialogue, the tough guy image, the heart of gold that Ben has. In a time that Marvel was starting to shift their focus, The Thing was the last shining jewel at the House of Ideas. In this work, Dan was able to capture more of what Marvel is about than any book I have read since.

For me, reading this work was a breath of fresh air from the cross over events that tend to leave the reader exhausted and burned out. The first arc was a three issue story about Ben and a party of celebrities getting kidnapped and taken to Murder Island by Arcade, who happened to be employed by a character parodying Paris Hilton. We have Constrictor, Iron Man, Nighthawk, and the Thing on this giant island filled with deadly traps trying to help the clumsy upper class escape with their lives. We get humor at a regular pace, but it never seemed to over power the title. We'd get a good fight every so often, look at the Hulk robots for example. Puny Bannerbot bites Ben's ankles while been swings and destroys a robotic copy of just about every form the Hulk has ever taken. Good, light hearted fun. Not only that, but we get to see the human side of Ben when he realizes that his actress girlfriend was dating him for his money, not for love. Obviously the reader could tell this from the halfway point of the story, but the way that Slott wrote Ben handling won my heart over.

Issue 4 introduced Lockjaw to the cast when he left the Inhumans to come be with Ben. I guess Lockjaw knew that Blackbolt was a Skrull well before Bendis decided to make him one. See that Bendis? Dan Slott was one step ahead of you the whole time you evil, maniacal fiend! Where was I? OH!

Unfortunately The Thing came out amidst big cross over events from both companies and saw the end of its run with issue 8. In it Dan gave us a fitting send off by having Ben's Bar Mitzvah, and a poker game. I won't tell who won, but I absolutely loved it, just as you should if you have a heart. Speaking of heart, that was one thing that you can feel while reading it; Dan poured his heart into it. Without a doubt, I would have to say this is my favorite series Marvel has put out this decade. We had beautiful art by Andrea Di Vito for the first 5 issues, and then Kieron Dwyer for the last 3. Andrea's was the best by far, but Kieron was able to come in and do a great job as well in keeping with the tone.

At a time that I find myself absolutely despising Marvel, I can always pick this up and read it and remember how the company used to be. If you can find a copy of the trade, The Thing: Idol of Millions, I would highly suggest it. Its out of print, but with Amazon and ebay, you can pick it up on the cheap.

I know that this is kind of an unorthodox review, but in case you didn't know I'm kind of an unorthodox guy. I sat down and tried to write this several different ways, but this seemed to have the best flow for me. Granted, its very much flawed, but as I go on and continue doing reviews for my friend's blog, my writing will improve. This has taken me a forever to get one up that I wasn't totally disgusted with, so I hope that you at least found some entertainment value from having read this.

Doom 2099 2nd arc (issues 5 – 10)

2008-03-28T11:38:00.008+08:00

Written by: John Francis Moore
Pencils by: Pat Broderick
Inks by: Various

The load of doing an introductory story already done in the first arc and with most things established already, this particular story arc is admittedly better, more exciting and kudos to series writer John Francis Moore, even more interesting and quite gripping in my humble opinion. In here we are introduced to a few more future recurring and somewhat can be described as supporting characters, all the while even developing more the previous ones. It was handled in a way though with such an organic manner, further establishing and fleshing out more the world of Doom 2099. This time showing more of its cyberspace world and a somewhat formidable villain destined to fall to showcase Doom’s skills, character and cunningness. A slight twist of fate and serendipity added to provoke a sense of adventure and make our protagonist not too seemingly invincible. Doom may be honorable and driven (or at least he is convinced of himself) of good intention, but he is not a good guy and pretty much selfish and full of himself. Those said descriptions is really what makes this series interesting, whenever I had been lulled into being comfortably reading this as just another superhero comic, he makes such annoyingly selfish actions/decisions that grounds you from totally admiring him. This is no sci-fi version of The Godfather as there are no full blown romanticizing of his exploits. Admittedly, stories of men in power are really quite alluring or at least men radical enough to force their own way into society and show how far it could work (a thought that brings to light how thin a line can be between being a hero and a villain is sometimes).

Personally I found this story quite sexy, with a big thanks to a certain computer program gone sentient turning into a somewhat demigoddess of this reality’s cyberspace. I’d tell you more but I honestly don’t want to spoil anything as one of the big assets of this arc is being captivated while stuff are introduced and seeing them unfold and run. All I can say is that by the end of this story, Doom has grown more powerful through smart and devious dealings giving him even more awesome amount of resources, in the “real world” that is. He has tasted godhood in cyberspace and obviously he will go back there sometime in the near future to even at least try and reclaim what he has once tasted and had. You know he has too as it is typical of him and is his very nature.

This story is near perfect (though not groundbreaking nor profound) in its execution. It is a great genre entertainment that only had trouble in the flow of continuity thanks to the fill in issue by legendary cartoonist Ernie Colon in issue 9. I don’t know if they were having scheduling problems at the time or that they just really wanted to have him work on an issue, but it was obvious that even though Ernie had knowledge of where the plot is going and did competently set a bridge to fill the gap between the issues he has slipped in, the issue after him has not been done and so he has no idea how to perfectly fit it. Same with regular writer J. F. Moore, he probably had an idea on where Ernie Colon was ending his story and what took place in it but he has not seen how it was executed and the details that were presented, it really made for a clunky transition to the audience. I honestly don’t think it is that aggravating unless one is totally anal retentive of course. It’s just that I found it a pity to have such a blemish in such a decent story that was flowing so smoothly for quite a while since its beginning. I can only hazard that it probably wasn’t that big of a deal at the time as this was done in the early ‘90s, way before trades of story arcs were even a consideration, at least for most regular series. I would assume then that the transition would have not been so jarring with a month wait in-between each issue.

With all that said I will have to give credit to the writer for being able to produce a very entertaining story despite its limitations and a great flowing story blemished only by circumstances and the standard practice of its time. The work still holds up pretty well, again in my opinion and found it honestly inspired, especially in comparison to most of the stuff put out by its publisher at the time noting more importantly all the flagship properties. Again I say, this series needs to be released in trades in today’s market so that new set of audience can enjoy for what is in my eye a delightful and intriguing work unpretentious of what it really is.

Honey Flash!

2008-03-10T22:45:00.004+08:00

Not really much of an update here. I will just share this Japanese music video I found fansubbed by Sailor Spork. It's the music video by Koda Kumi for the soundtrack of the Cutie Honey Live Action Movie. I've always maintained that the Cutie Honey OP song is one of the most catchiest tunes ever and this modernization cover is no exception. You wont believe how many months I was humming this song over and over.

Good Girl Art!

2008-03-02T17:30:00.002+08:00

It's been a while since I attempted doing one again. Since I've been slacking in updating this place, I guess I could share simultaneously here alongside with Deviant Art anyways. Yes you can find the same artworks here and there somewhat. Enjoy!

Deviant Art!

2008-02-28T19:22:00.003+08:00

It would seem I had slacked off in posting new entries in this blog. I love this blog and this has not been the first time where I kind of neglected this place so I wont make excuses. One of the reasons for the sporadic entries here besides work is I'm currently spending more time in my Deviant Art page which I just started by the way.

Make no mistake though, there are still tons of stuff I'd like to put here and I already have a checklist for them. In the meantime though head over to my Deviant Art page to see more stuff like the one below. More updates to come to this blog soon.

Excited for Kiva!

2008-01-13T21:27:00.000+08:00

This new year, basing it from all the promo materials I've seen so far to rumors floating around about the new Kamen Rider series, I'm really excited and have my hopes up for Kamen Rider Kiva. Much appreciation to TV Nihon for providing us subtitles for this promo video. Check the clip and see if it looks promising to you as it does to me.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-21T12:51:00.000+08:00

Personally for me this is one of the most wonderful times of the year even if it truly has been heavily commercialized. Every Christmas season I feel like a child again and even if not true, I feel that at least for one day everything is all right in the world. I just like the atmosphere.

To all my friends and readers here I greet you a happy holiday no matter what your cultural background is, I just hope you enjoy it.

I was planning on making a theme for the entries this year highlighting Christmas stories that I liked from different media, whether they be animation, comics, movies or storybooks. I even asked a few friends to contribute with their own selections. Alas time did not permit it as I became too busy this December to properly organize it. I feel tired but still comfortably happy regardless simply because of the season and I wish the same to all of you, after all 'tis the season to be jolly.

I'll just save doing reviews for A Very Charlie Brown Christmas and the likes next year and instead just give you two easy listenings for this one.

Ghost Rider 2099 the first 5 issues

2007-12-11T21:10:00.000+08:00

Writer: Len Kaminsky
Artists: Chris Bachalo, Mark Buckingham, Peter Gross and others

I remember fondly when this used to be my favorite 2099 title from Marvel. That didn't last and I'm reminded now after reading it again for this review. I don't think I can ever motivate myself to review the entire run of this series following it per story arc like I promised to do with Doom 2099. It isn't just that compelling anymore.

Looking back, it wasn't the gimmick cover of the first issue that convinced me to buy this comic like so many else did back when I was a teenager. It was the original art team. Back then my favorite artists in comics were Joe Quesada and Chris Bachalo. Later on through the years, I realized that it was actually more the tandem of Bachalo and Mark Buckingham that I liked. Both are very talented and good artists in their own right, but working together the art they produced were an amalgam of great artistry only possible when the strength of both artists are combined.

Now see the story in this arc was decently good and probably bordering on great at the start. The more it moved and was fleshed out, the more it's mediocrity was revealed. The premise was simple in that this new Ghost Rider is in no way related to the older iterations, more far removed from how the Danny Ketch version was from the Johnny Blaze one even. This newer version is technology based compared to the old mystical version. This is not a Spirit of Vengeance incarnate but a man turned robot by sentient computer programs in a quest for personal vengeance and trying to be a symbol of destruction for the current social inequality prevalent at the 2099 universe timeline. Basically it's just a new take on the property meshed with all the other established premises of the other 2099 titles of evil corporations running society, the cyberspace (internet) as some sort of a separate new world interlinked with the real world and the borrowed societal hierarchy from Magnus: Robot Fighter.

Now mind you, I really personally find this comic a blast to read. The somewhat mediocre story is negligible to complain about when the way it is presented blows your socks off with it's killer gritty art. Well at least for this story arc, and you can see it dwindling down until the fifth issue. As the original art team starts to depart from the series one by one, so did my interest. The first 3 issues were the most awesome simply for the fact that those were the ones done by the Chris Bachalo and Mark Bucking ham tandem. The 4th issue pencilled by Peter Gross was still satisfying because Buckingham still embellished it and the art still resonates enough familiarity with the first three. I was thankful enough that Buckingham almost did the majority of art in issue 5 which at least ensured the flow of the artwork until the closure of this initial storyline. No offense to Kyle Hotz who had since took over starting at issue 6, I know he is a talented guy and all but it was Bachalo and Buckingham that made this comic for me. Without them, it's just wasn't the same ever again.

I have to admit though, the tease at the end of this story is quite intriguing. The hinted conspiracy from the sentient programs' (AKA The Ghostworks) conversation that served as an epilogue, displayed that the events that had happened and triggered the origin of the main protagonist Zero Cochrane's transformation into Ghost Rider was not out of serendipity nor the noble pure intentions that they claimed to have. Still, as I've said too many times already, I can't muster enough of the enthusiasm without the original art team. Have I beaten that point to death already?

Monster Art!

2007-12-09T03:00:00.000+08:00

3 pieces of monsters I drew while bored. Well actually the orange tentacle guy was an entry for an online design your own kaiju contest years ago for a tokusatsu site. It won me a 2nd place prize! The others were done out of boredom, I'm planning on doing more of this in the future. I like designing monsters it seems.

I would have posted this suckers back in October for my supposedly 2nd year of horror theme posting in anticipation of Halloween, but alas my old computer crashed and I only managed to buy one late November.

Click the images for a bigger view of the pic. Enjoy!

Doom 2099 the first 4 issues

2007-12-07T18:42:00.000+08:00

Written by: John Francis Moore
Penciled by: Pat Broderick

I was honestly planning on reviewing the entire series in one big swoop, but then decided otherwise. I felt that it wasn't fair to all the contributors and creators of the entire run of this great series. Instead in the near future, expect more reviews for individual story arcs of this title. This effort is an attempt to raise awareness for this forgotten and under appreciated title and hopefully if possible, convince Marvel to release trade collections for this particular title.

When the concept of the 2099 line of comics was first announced, I was just about to become a teenager and I thought that this was a bad idea that would eventually flop. The fact that most cover prices of comics back then still enabled me to have a bit more elbow room with my impulse purchase, my curiosity still got the better of me and I still ended up trying some of the titles in it. Three titles particularly managed to impressed me big time (Spiderman 2099, Doom 2099 and Ghost Rider 2099) and one got my cursory attention (Punisher 2099).

Now to be more specific. The story of Doom 2099 was one great big elaborate tale who I'm guessing was not really much planned out entirely as with most cases of ongoing comic titles at the time. However each particular storyline was compelling enough to suck you in while the inherent uniqueness of the premise for its time piques the interest.

The comics was a series on the exploits of a villain, not an anti hero but an actual villain. A well rounded villain with logical motivation but a villain nonetheless and quite unapologetic at it. A story of a man whose resolve that his way is the only way, egocentric, ambitious, manipulative, power hungry and driven. It makes no bones in showing the ugly side of idealism granted set off in a backdrop of a futuristic sci-fi setting. Those along with the passion displayed and global political intrigue albeit a fictional one at that is what catches the audience.

The premise of the first and introductory arc is simply that, an introduction. It shows how a time displaced Doom arriving at his current setting with a slight amnesia preventing him from remembering how and why he got there. Seeing his future country in a sense of disarray and poverty he decided to make his primary mission taking the leadership back from those currently in power. Along the process seeds of doubt of whether he was the real Dr. Victor Von Doom are presented, but ultimately that did not deter him. Showing the resolve, cunning and arrogance of the actual 20th century villain, he successfully managed to accomplish his initial goals. Doom was once again ruler of Latveria, however plenty of mysteries are still left unsolved and treachery foreboding from all directions. It was a very simple but satisfying conclusion and set up for all the remaining stories to come.

Azrael Ash

2007-09-11T16:51:00.000+08:00

Written by: Dennis O' Neil
Art by: Joe Quesada and Jimy Palmiotti

I' going to take step back in giving attention to the obscure and generally ignored works for this entry, in place I'm going to focus for now a forgotten one instead. This prestige format one-shot comics is basically a relic of the '90s. A non-consequential, irrelevant, crossover story simply done for the money and perhaps as a bit of fan service for the die hards. The character Azrael is not used by DC, it's parent company anymore and Ash and it's publisher ceased when creator Joe Quesada became the EIC for Marvel Comics.

This comic is quite especial for fans like me in that this one shot reunited the original team and creators of the character Azrael pairing him with Joe Quesada's other most famous creation, Ash. Back in high school as a teen, when I was just dreaming of becoming an artist and starting to hone my skills, Joe Q was one of my heroes. The guy whose works I look up to for inspiration. Times have changed and so has my sensibilities, still whenever I see his art, it reminds me of my younger days and simpler times. I have always considered his style as one of the best fit for the action genre, including superheroes and especially the street level ones.

I have also always wanted him back then to have a decent run on Batman, a dream tandem of my favorite character back in high school along with my favorite artist. It never happened because he really didn't wanted to. The closest it ever was, outside of the occasional covers he did for the character that was of note was this one-shot comic (and Batman was just a cameo here) and the original Sword of Azrael mini series.

Like I've said, time has moved on and things have changed. The audience climate and perception has totally changed, the character Azrael who once was heavily tied to the Batman mythos has been almost totally forgotten and many relics from the time period is looked at with disdain by many. I call shenanigans though, I had a blast back then and that's all I care about. This comic was basically an end of an era for me as I've never looked back with fonder memories to superhero comics after this one. My sensibilities and priorities have changed, for better or for worse.

In the grand scheme of things, this comic is irrelevant. I love it though as a personal reminder for the stuff I liked as a kid. Besides, as a throwaway entertainment, this one is pretty good in my humble opinion.

Added a new feature

2007-09-05T19:17:00.000+08:00

I just added a new feature to this blog found at the very bottom of this page. Go ahead and take a look see. This has been done in order to promote scrolling down and for people to see the older posts and at the process encouraging them to read those too. Plus it also promotes the work of one of my favorite artists that is Roger Langridge. I plan to do a Talent Spotlight entry on him too in the future.

As always, I bid you to enjoy!

Up From The Depths!

2007-09-03T12:32:00.000+08:00

An online friend of mine, Matthew Cradic just gave me a link to one of the most awesome video I've seen in YouTube. I honestly felt compelled to post this and share it with all of you.

Major kudos to Shyaporn Theerakulstit for having mad skills with Final Cut Pro and creating this video.

This video is so cool! Hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

Godzilla! Truly the king of kaiju.

On a side note. If everything goes to plan. Expect a guest contributor to give you some really cool reviews of some really cool stuff in the near future.

Art School Confidential

2007-08-31T01:26:00.000+08:00

Director: Terry Zwigoff
Screenplay: Daniel Clowes

Cast:
Max Minghella ... Jerome
Sophia Myles ... Audrey
John Malkovich ... Professor Sandiford
Jim Broadbent ... Jimmy
Matt Keeslar ... Jonah
Ethan Suplee ... Vince
Joel Moore ... Bardo (as Joel David Moore)
Nick Swardson ... Matthew
Anjelica Huston ... Art History Teacher
Adam Scott ... Marvin Bushmiller

Synopsis:
Jerome Platz, a talented but impressionable young artist just got a big break by being accepted in the prestigious art school the Strathmore Institute. As somewhat of an outcast and a helpless romantic, he found in that school the girl of his dreams and started to desperately impress her with his self perceived talent. The only other thing he focused on was his ambition to be the greatest painter. However, the hypocrisy and pretentiousness of the cutthroat world of art school is something he hadn't prepared for. Add to that the lingering presence of a serial killer publicly dubbed as the Strathmore Strangler, and the antagonistic tension between the local police and his college community, Jerome must now face the fact that he is just one of the many stereotypes with a hollow pipe dream of becoming a famous artist.

Review:
The movie is very loosely based on the comic of the same title. Understandable as the comics was just a 4 page feature in the 7th issue of Eightball (an anthology comic by Daniel Clowes who also was the screenwriter for the movie). I know most people had been disappointed by this flick and it did actually polarized critics with their reviews. I however fall on the camp that loved this movie. Most criticisms blames it for being based in a comic because said characters are either cliche or stereotypes and are bland because of that. I know comics is still a niche market and for some reason some people still want to separate manga from it, but it really amuses me that today, in the 21st century, there are still people stuck on the notion that all comics are simplistic kiddie fare full of characters with alliterative names. Such argument and platform for criticizing a movie basically has no legs in my opinion. Simply for the fact that first, they really have no idea about the source material and have not personally encountered it, citing it only on hearsay and assumptions based on stigma. Secondly, they obviously were oblivious to the context on how the movie is just loosely based on the concept of a very short comics and that is considerably divergent from the said material, besides taking its title and the core concept that it is a satirical parody of an art school environment. I may sound like I'm just making a straw man argument but I really needed to get that out of my chest.

I do not want to change the opinions of those who have already seen the movie and did not like it. Instead, I will just concentrate on what made it work for me. Now on to the proper review.

What many people who have seen the movie fail to realize is, I doubt this was made to be a serious statement that reflects the social human condition in attempt to be high art. Cartoonist Daniel Clowes may be known for that in his comics work, but this movie surely is not. Just like the core of the source material (which has been noted by the creator himself was just nothing more than filler material who took a life of its own by becoming a phenomenon to various art schools), the movie was one big satirical parody of the art school community. It is full of exaggerations, cliche and stereotypes for that reason. The narrative is just incidental and a tool to showcase all of them. It should readily have been apparent to the audience once they saw the conclusion, showcasing the hypocrisy and opportunism of the protagonist in the end. It was commentary on a very small circle that exist in society, the artistic field. The creators were making fun of themselves and their peers.

I cannot guarantee that everybody will enjoy this movie. However if you are a professional artist, an art student, film major or anything similar, I'm pretty sure curiosity will take over and you'll end up watching this anyway. I do humbly recommend this film just for the fact that I have personally enjoyed it. This goes without saying that your mileage may vary from my own.

As always, I'm a nice guy enough to actually embed a YouTube trailer of the Art School Confidential movie just so that you could understand and have a better idea of what ever the heck i am talking about. Enjoy!

Monkey vs. Robot

2007-08-30T08:04:00.000+08:00

Created by: James Kochalka
Published by: Top Shelf Productions
One of cartoonist's James Kochalka's earliest and famous works. It kind of became a phenomenon in a niche circle. I would not necessarily classify this as a silent comic as it did feature some words and special effects sound, but it is more of a visual story. The basic premise is simple, a group of monkeys fought a factory of robots for their jungle. I cant really spill much because you need to see it to actually get the story more fully, and it is such a short one even if the book does clock up 160 pages. It's the visual telling and not verbal saying of the story aspect of it that makes it so.

The story is basically an allegory of the "Nature vs. Technology" concept presented through simple yet beautiful and some might say in a crudely elegant art drowned in a sea of whimsy. All in all, this book is a great short read for all ages.

No Henshin!?!

2007-08-28T03:24:00.000+08:00

KAMEN RIDER: THE FIRST

Directed by Takao Nagaishi
Written by Toshiki Inoue

Cast:
Masaya Kikawada as Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider 1
Hassei Takano as Hayato Ichimonji/Kamen Rider 2
Rena Komine as Asuka Midorikawa

From the opening credits:

SHOCKER.
An organization that manipulates society from the underworld.
The soldiers they create [remodeled humans], have superhuman abilities that they use for their dark operations.
They keep their feelings and identities secret no matter what.
Thus they wear a [mask] (kamen) ----------

Synopsis:(Spoiler Section --read at your own risk)
College student Takeshi Hongo is abducted into terrorist organisation SHOCKER (Sacred Hegemony Of Cycle Kindred Evolutional Realm), where he was experimented upon to become a remodeled human agent for said organization. Brainwashed, he became an assassin for the group and successfully carried out his first mission. Later on when he was instructed to assassinate witnesses of his first mission, he found his lost humanity inside him and rebelled against SHOCKER. That was because he discovered the witnesses were the reporter Asuka Midorikawa, whom he has a crush on and interviewed him prior to being abducted and her fiancé Katsuhiko Yano .

The ensuing debacle led to Hongo being labeled as a traitor and ended up with him killing another remodeled human agent to avoid punishment. Yano was presumed to have died in the incident but was actually taken by SHOCKER to be turned into a replacement agent in Hongo's stead. Yano acquired a new identity as Ichimonji Hayato, the second Kamen Rider.

Hayato was willing to kill Hongo as a rival in order to win his fiancé back. That all changed however when SHOCKER decided to make the reporter into a remodeled human agent of theirs too. This forced the two Kamen Riders into a reluctant alliance to save the woman.

Review:
Honestly speaking I am very torn about this movie. I kind of love and hate it in a way. From what I have gathered, the general reaction from fandom seems to be the same way and my feelings about this is not even influenced by that.

This movie is basically a remake of the first series that basically became a huge franchise. Stylistically and visually, I really loved this movie for actually updating the original and for the lack of a better term "making it cooler". One major difference from the original TV series is it's obvious attempt to take itself seriously and totally and consciously avoiding the "campy" aspect of the series. In that regard, it tried to add elements and changes from the original. I wouldn't say they needlessly did those as I was quite fine with many of them but in retrospect they could have executed it in much better ways in my opinion.

The lack of the term "henshin" (literally translates as "transform") being used by the heroes is something I can easily accept for the remake compared to most fans who cry hypocrisy and that the movie was blatantly ashamed of its own genre of being a superhero movie. I have no problems with it in the fact that it fits the context of the movie, because the characters weren't really transforming either, they were just suiting up. The concept here is unlike in the series, even though they have become remodeled humans (basically cyborgs), they just still look like normal humans, just stronger, faster and basically I guess physically better. It's just kind of jarring for a long time fan of the franchise like me to not hear henshin being uttered, when the movie is basically based on the series that made the word famous and actually being used as a sub-genre descriptor in Henshin Heroes (literally meaning transforming heroes) for Tokusatsu (Japanese Sci-fi).

The concept of the remodeled humans needing blood transfusion lest they run the risk of the body rejecting their cybernetic parts and dying was a concept I really liked, however they botched it all up by not tackling and completely ignoring it after being introduced. I was honestly scratching my head why they even bothered with it since they really didn't even used the damn thing.

The plot that lead to the final scene, telling the origin of the two remodeled human agents that fought with the two Kamen Riders was totally hokey and disjointed in timeline. Initially confusing to the audience until they figure out that it is some poorly executed attempt of a Pulp Fiction (the movie) type presentation.

All in all it is a decent action movie with enough visual cues and candy for long time fans like me to geek out and latch on to and even impress first time viewers of the franchise. The only concern will be the retarded structuring of the story and seemingly disdain for the campiness of the original series by the movie, when in itself it just ended being what it didnt want to be, a goofy yet entertaining superhero movie. The Kamen Rider Black TV series still beats it as a more serious and darker interpretation of the series.

I still recommend this to first time viewers, as half of the possible issues I have with this movie is based more on my familiarity with the property. New fans will probably enjoy it better, not as a serious flick but more of popcorn fare type entertainment. I mean the action scenes are still top notch and dynamic. The story about average, the structuring of the narrative is probably only the weakest part of it.

Here's the Japanese theatrical trailer thanks to Tokyo Monsters.com and YouTube to give you guys an inkling of what I'm talking about:

Talent Spotlight: Jen Wang

2007-08-25T03:00:00.000+08:00

Don't you hate it when you cant remember some of the people you've known or met? Imagine how harder it is for people you haven't even met or interacted with. When all you have is just a name. I mean yeah, it's easy to remember celebrities like actors, actresses, singers etc.; but that's only because you have a face attached to the memory and the media for one time or another has probably bombarded your consciousness with their existence.

Artists like painters, illustrators, sculptors and writers gets the short end of the stick in that regard. Especially if you're not a historical figure (yet?) or even someone on the top the so-called niche of whatever it is you decided to break in to. Of course today the internet changed all that, literally everybody can now be a celebrity to at least 3 people if we wanted to. So what does Jen Wang have all to do with that very long rambling of an introduction and who is she really? The honest answer is I really don't know. Well I used to, then completely forgot about her and whatever works of her I encountered, and then now I sort of remember. Try reading this first two paragraphs aloud and you'd probably think I'm some kind of airhead. Trust me, I could have edited this all out, but I do feel this fits this particular entry and of the message I'm actually trying to convey. So please bear with me some more.

The funniest thing in all of this is, had I just changed perspective and if someone had asked me if I knew what Strings of Fate was, I could probably give you an answer or at the least a bit of inkling within seconds. It's an online comic that I liked and used to follow years ago. Part of my problem of being a pack rat in real life is that it also transitioned into me being a bookmark junkie. I almost certainly will bookmark any webpage that manages to get my interest. And this has been the case with my knowledge of Jen Wang. It was her work, that particular one that made an impression on me. With the online comic now gone and the domain name used by a cyber squatter, it could have been virtually impossible for me to know who she was. Good thing she wasn't a one trick pony and I have managed to found who created Strings of fate with the help of Google. One amazing thing I have noticed, she has improved a lot from what I remember of her sketchy online comic to her being an actual high caliber professional artist. She has now been a 2 time contributor for the first two volumes of the highly successful Flight anthology series as well as the You Ain't No Dancer black and white anthology.

Her art has often been praised as an amalgamation of manga and Disney, which is actually funny considering the history of manga and the influence of Disney to legendary mangaka Osamu Tezuka, but that's another story altogether.

I must admit that I really know very little about her even today. However, her work speaks to me. Not just the online comic I used to follow but also from all the stuff I have seen now on her official website here. It may not be high art or anything, but the playfulness of her works, the ways she tells her stories with, heck the stories she comes up with in itself, the overtly naughty or edginess (a term I usually hate to use but is rightly appropriate here) counteracted by the whimsical appeal of her visuals really does command attention. Well at least for me that is. I like the playfulness inherent in her works, a sense of being familiar in her style yet completely claiming it as hers.

So what I was trying to say about her works in the first place, is basically I like her style. I don't know anything about the person, but as an artist she's really good. That's it!

Please don't kill me.

Please note that I actually recommend to check her Monster Sex series of art in the gallery part of her site. They look absolutely beautiful and she is actually selling a set of prints of it. I myself will be trying to find a way to purchase them without the shipping cost crippling me, since I live waaaaay outside of the U.S.

All artworks featured in this entry is copyright Jen Wang and is taken directly from her website found at http://jenwang.net/

This Time It's Personal

2007-08-24T22:41:00.000+08:00

ANOTHER ART SHARING ENTRY
If you don't know what MoCCA is, well then I'm glad to rectify that situation. Simply put, it's the acronym of an organization called the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. The name itself should be descriptive enough, but if you do want to find out more details about the organization, you can check the Wikipedia entry about them here or you can visit their official website here.

MoCCA is really well known to enthusiasts of comics for regularly hosting various events throughout the year that celebrates the artform. Every year they celebrate an annual MoCCA Art Festival. It was held last June 23-24 of this year. Luckily for me, even if I didn't had the ability to attend, that an online buddy of mine,one Jeremy Hughes, is a volunteer worker for that said organization. The list of guests and exhibitors this year was practically a "who's who" of professionals I admire or look up to. The guy managed to snag me some sketches with personal greetings or dedication to me and I really love and appreciated it. I'm sharing those to you now.

This one was done by Raina Telgemeier, probably and currently most famous for as the illustrator of the Baby-sitters Club Graphic Novel series, adapted from the novel by Ann M. Martin. You can find more info about her on her official website goRaina.com

This particular sketch is done by Craig Yoe. I have to admit that he is a bit on the obscure side of fame, but I really do love his works. With his body of works, nobody could really argue though his success as an artist and personal achievements.

Craig Yoe is co-founder of YOE Studio and a proponent of Arf. If you have no idea what the heck I just said, then just click the links, please? I do love Arf.

Okay, last but not the least (or is it?). This next artwork is something not done by anybody famous. Heck he doesn't even claim to be an artist himself. However, I do like, and I mean really like whatever drawings of his he posts on the internet. This one is done by my online buddy Jeremy Hughes himself, by special request from me. I asked for something that combined horror and 1950s sci-fi. This was what I got:

This sucker blew me away! I love it.

Gegege No Kitaro art by Craig Thompson

2007-08-24T04:56:00.000+08:00

Well, before anything else, yes I had been gone for a while. I apologize for that, I wish I could post here more regularly but such is life. However, good news is you could consider this as a resurrection of sorts. October is near again and that seems when I'm active the most here. I do have tons of stuff to share again for that particular season of the year.

Now on to business...

If you guys still remember my Shigeru Mizuki entry last year, well this entry is obviously related to that. Famous cartoonist Craig Thompson (famous for the graphic novels Blankets and Goodbye Chunky Rice) apparently is a fan too. Well I'd just like to share that he did this artwork:

Said artwork is a gift for his friend who got him into the Gegege No Kitaro manga series. More details are found here in this link from which the pic is taken.

Heck why not visit his blog Doot Doot Doot Garden and poke around on all his interesting entries. I highly recommend it.

Remembering Eddie Guerrero

2006-11-13T16:39:00.000+08:00

A year ago, one of my favorite wrestlers Eduardo Gory Guerrero Llanes, better known as Eddie Guerrero passed away. Leaving us, his fans shocked. He might not have gotten the public attention as much or in the way wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin did, but he was personally the one who changed my way of viewing matches. Smark fans call it "workrate". As an entertainer, he was top notch. Even though I have followed his career moreso than the average fan, I will not pretend to be an expert and give a detailed career retrospective. I just miss the man and his performance that entertained me like so very few can.

When WWE Raw aired a montage video in remembrance to him last year, I nearly cried, my eyes literally welling up. They had chosen such an apt song with Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" to reflect the life of Eddie. So today one year has passed since his death, I scoured YouTube to find a copy of the song. To those who missed it, you can now listen to one powerful and haunting song.

Talent Spotlight: Joshua Middleton

2006-11-09T06:49:00.000+08:00

I really cant speak much about Joshua Middleton as there are very few things I know about him except that I like most of his works. Scouring the internet to find more info about him has been a futile effort for the last 3 years. It is rare for such artists to have gained enough popularity and spawn many fan sites and still maintain such a discreet amount of info on one's life floating in the web. I guess I should commend him for that, heck you can find more info about me, a simple nobody if you google my real name compared to this young star of a talent. I do find that little bit of trivia amicable, as it just shows that his work speaks volume moreso than his actual person.

So let me just go on about him from what little I know. I know he started as one of the few actual newfound talents of the now deceased publishing company Crossgen working on the comic Meridian as its first and original artist. Controversy already hit him early in his career over an online review/preview of his very first issue there. I dont know much about the details as I wasn't really impressed with his early works and didnt really paid attention to him or any news pertaining to him. From what I heard, another controversy followed him immediately again when he became one of the first to defect from the publisher that gave him his first break. Like before, I'm not much help with the details for my earlier mentioned reason. I won't put much stock on hearsay as to actually side or put judgment to the character of anybody involved in that brouhaha.

Back then, I wasn't really even aware of the publisher called Com.X either, but when I accidentally stumbled upon previews of what was supposed to be Middleton's first creator owned work there called "Sky Between Branches", that was when I was first floored on how amazing his work really was. His earlier works on Meridian was already decent, but nothing really impressive in my eyes. So I thought to myself that time, that maybe his defection from Crossgen may have been warranted, if only for the obvious improvement that I was seeing.

He definitely got my attention that time. Then he disappeared for months again. That was until Marvel Comics EIC Joe Quesada (who is also an artist whose work I follow) announced a collaboration between something written by him and drawn by Middleton. The announced work was NYX, a title though still unpublished at the time, was already steeped in online controversy from previous talents assigned to it. Again, I didn't care as the preview art shown later on blew me away. I told myself that I would definitely follow that work and I did. He definitely delivered with his work on that title. One would have thought his art style wouldn't fit with the gritty street level story of the book, but it did in my opinion. The book was going great, even if a little bit slow to come, it didn't matter to me. That was until he left after the 4th issue and went exclusive with DC Comics. The title never felt the same for me again and so I dropped it after issue 5. The title ended at issue 7 from what I heard.

At DC, he did the 4 issue mini series "Shazam/Superman: First Thunder". A very solid work for him but seemingly less extravagant, I felt he went for a more reliable approach there instead of the more playful ingenuity that I have associated with him. I still liked it though.

After that last major project, like many other fans, I thought he seemed to have disappeared again. Apparently not as he was doing various things like a cover for Street Fighter, a short story for the Wildstorm Winter Special and many more covers for Runaways, American Virgin and a various other titles. As pretty as those are though, I can't honestly wait to see another major comic work from him again. If you still can't tell by this point, I really do like his work.

If you are interested to see more samples of his works, an online gallery can be found if you click here.

Happy Halloween!!!

2006-11-01T00:57:00.000+08:00

This sadly marks the end of October. It was fun having a theme but I guess all good things must end. To the small audience I have gained as of late. Thank you. This however doesn't mean the end of my freaky ramblings, new stuff will still be posted and I promise that I won't deviate much from the image and interest that have come to develop as this blog's identity. So stay tuned for more fun stuff and random thoughts from your one and only Genetic Freak.

I bid you all a Happy Halloween!

Showcase Presents: House of Mystery

2006-10-31T00:58:00.000+08:00

Aaahhh!!! October is ending and I'm running out of time! I guess I just have to save some of the other good stuff for next year. With that said, this one made it to the cut of being prioritized to be shared now. Let's get to it.

"Showcase Presents:" is basically DC Comics' answer to Marvel's Essential line, which basically are tomes of black and white comic reprints spotlighting a specific character or title. The beauty with this format, beyond the very affordable cover price they offer for those 500 pages is that this line basically have brought back some really obscure works that would never have seen the light of day again otherwise.

For this particular work I'm featuring, I won't bother you much with a proper review as this is basically a reprint of 21 issues of a monthly anthology. I will just give you a quick briefing of details and why I consider this worthy of recommendation.

First, for basic info: This first volume reprints The House of Mystery issues #174 - 194. Basically the first 21 issues overseen by legendary editor Joe Orlando. Don't expect much on the quality of the stories within because they were all really simplistic which is easily understandable as they were intended to be nothing more than simple disposable entertainment. However, this collection is a veritable treasure chest of great classic comic illustration. Any aspiring artist or people who are just plain appreciative of good art should have this in their collection. I'm not joking, a short list of the artists who contributed here should easily impress you. Okay, from the top of my head that I can recall are: The editor himself Joe Orlando, Carmine Infantino, Mort Meskin, Neal Adams, Sergio Aragones, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Jack Sparling, Wally Wood, Bernie Wrightson, Jerry Grandenetti, Alex Toth, Wayne Howard, Al Williamson, Tony DeZuniga, Jim Aparo, Gray Morrow, Russ Heath and Nestor Redondo. Trust me, I'm probably forgetting about a dozen more names from that list, besides that should impress you enough or I'd seriously doubt the quality of your taste anyway.

The only other detail I can add is how amazing the art reproduction of this volume has. The line art are really crisp, way better than basically every Marvel Essential I've ever seen. In fact, the reproduction is so good that a part of me honestly believe that it's presented better now than they were originally published in color, what with those off-registered marks, shoddy seperations, crude and garish limited palette of the obviously inferior printing technology back then.

I seriously urge you to look for this one, more support for this could lend to the immediacy of the release for the second volume, which I believe has even better stuff.

Swamp Thing: Roots

2006-10-30T03:32:00.000+08:00

Written and painted by: Jon J. Muth

I honestly thought this would be one of my easiest and shortest reviews, I was totally wrong. This very short and simple story is also probably one of the most complex I've encountered. Not so much for new grounds ventured in literary achievement but more for artistic execution on a very well ventured subject. I had to re-read this piece 3 times just to refresh my memory because I realized the story was much more layered than I remember, trying to recall it just from memory will not cut it. I'm not even sure if I fully absorbed what it was trying to say in total. Not the fault of the author though, it is my own shortcoming for being limited in my comprehension. This work obviously challenges me and I like it.

In regards to the story, I'm not sure if this was set in "Elseworld" continuity from the regular series, or it's a brilliant attempt to play with the concept of the "plant elementals" and the "Parliament of Trees" first introduced by Alan Moore during his run on the regular series. That concept make stories like this and other potentially groundbreaking ones possible to be told.

The story set in 1947 on Indiana could probably classify this as a period piece. 4 years ago, back when I first bought and read this, I initially thought that this could be a simple yet powerful tale on its own without even being tied to the Swamp Thing concept, as the connection seemed very minimal. Back then I also had barely an inkling of what Alan Moore did to Swamp Thing. Now I know better, and I believe the story is much more powerful because of the connection. I honestly wonder though, is the character Aaron Hayley here part of the Parliament of Trees now or not? That's a curiosity that will probably linger in my head for a while now.

I will not spoil anything as usual, except that I will tell you that this is basically a story focusing on a broken "white" family from the south, a black man, their community and racial tension. This short Prestige Format comics published by Vertigo barely clocks in at 64 pages and yet is probably one of those that takes the longest time for me to digest. I'm glad that I had bought this, even if initially only for Jon J. Muth's painted art, who by the way is one of my favorite artists ever. He definitely delivered with this. Other comics may just look pretty because of the painted art, but this one has impeccable visual storytelling to accompany it. The story is actually the art, the art is actually the story, they are inseperable, which is just as it should be when it comes to comics.

Trust me, there are only very few works that I will ever give the utmost amount of confidence in recommending. This is one of them. There are no reservations in me when I say this is a good comic and that you should definitely read this!

It is still avalable through Amazon, you can buy it by clicking this link.

The Corpse Bride

2006-10-22T17:59:00.000+08:00

CREDITS:
Directed by: Tim Burton and Mike Johnson
Casts: Johnny Depp (Victor Van Dort)
Helena Bonham Carter (Emily, The Corpse Bride)
Emily Watson (Victoria Everglot)

When I first saw the trailer for this movie at the theater, my first reaction was complete apathy. I was a big fan of Tim Burton when I was younger but grew tired of his works later on as I've aged with his repititive prefference for certain motifs and visual quirks. It's nice for artists to have a sense of identity stamped in your work, however I feel that a signature should in no way overpower the work itself. That in my opinion is one of Mr. Burton's glaring weakness. I honestly thought at first glance that this was a sequel to Nightmare Before Christmas. That was not good, as afterall even when I realized that it really wasn't, after seeing the entirety of the trailer, whatever little interest I had due to curiosity had quickly faded away too. Unless you haven't seen any other Burton flicks, it feels old and a road already thread.

I would have completely lost any notion of the existence of this film had my sister not bought the DVD for me afew weeks ago. She just had assumed it was right up my alley, and I thank her and her thoughtfulness for that. Still my interest for that movie was nil at the time and I just stuff it in my pile of unwatched movies.

Then came my birthday and the kickass celebration I had this month. One big problem with me is my rollercoaster mood, if I'm too happy one day, it's a guarantee that I'll be somewhat depressed or guilty the next moment. So in that melancholic moment, I've decided to counter this by watching a DVD. It ended up being this movie. Now I'm not sure if it was just the great timing with my mood but I ended up really liking this movie. The plot is so basic and simple but the actual execution clicks. And as weird as it sounds, I really found the character Victoria cute. Reminds me of the standards of how a proper lady should be as told to me by my grandmother when I was a kid, heh. Also, I can't help but be reminded of Bettlejuice even if a little as I watched this, what with the "new arrival in the world of the dead" concept. The twist in the end can be easily recognized and deduced though, it was a bit reminiscent of Sleepy Hollow too though not as far out of the left field as it was. I guess this is still a standard Tim Burton flick then afterall. Ha ha!

Granted that this isn't some innovative masterpiece of cinema history, and it is chock full of the standard tropes that Burton likes to utilize, but it is a solid entertaining film. Something to be watched when not wearing your critical hat. Somthing I'd recommend just for fun.

In These Fantastic Pages You Will Meet...

2006-10-17T21:16:00.000+08:00

KIRBY MONSTERS!!!
I honestly can't remember anymore how I found out about Monster Blog, what I do know is being super excited about it when I did. I have already told you about you how I adore Jack Kirby's work, especially those campy monster comics he did just prior to the superhero boom at Marvel. Normally I would beat you senseless in the head by going on and on regarding the greatness of those comics, but I have now decided to save my lenghty diatribes exclusively to reviews of comics and whatnot only.

This blog is literally a haven for Kirby Monsters. Not only does it sport a gallery of all the covers of comics Kirby did for Marvel back in the '50s and '60s, everybody is welcome to put in their own reviews in the comment sections. Site owner Philip Parodayco even encourages you to beat him to the punch in posting reviews to comics that have yet to have one. It also features a listing and profiles of the various monsters complete with pics scanned from the comics themselves.

I'm really not sure if it is intentional by design or not though, as I kind of find navigating the site kind of tricky at first before I got the hang of it. I suggest you play around as I've found tons of cool stuff there that I guess we could consider as easter eggs.

This is a really wonderful site. If you're a big fan of Kirby, or even just monsters in general, this will definitely be a great resource for you.

Monster Kid Online Magazine

2006-10-17T20:14:00.000+08:00

A self description coming from the Monster Kid site itself:

MONSTER KID magazine is intended as a fun and affectionate salute to the publications of the 1960s. Part of the look and feel of this site is inspired by the classic monster magazine traditions popularized by James Warren and Forrest J. Ackerman in the original FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND and featured in various other magazines of that time. If MONSTER KID makes you recall memories the classic monster magazines of the past, then we are very gratified.

If you're online and bored, I suggest you visit this site. Tons of good reading materials for the horror fanatic. Issue 5 is currently up and is boasted as the most jam packed issue yet! I recommend issue 4 though as it is my favorite issue of the lot simply for the Jack Davis feature article. Yup, I always find a way to bring everything I talk about back into comics.

Go ahead, click this link to visit the site now.

Jay Stephens and Monsterama

2006-10-17T16:38:00.000+08:00

It would seem I've lost a bit of my momentum. There are tons of stuff keeping me busy and it frustrates me because I still have tons of stuff I still want to post about this month in keeping with the Halloween theme. I don't think I can wait till next year to share all of them. I guess I'll just have to cut down on my talkativeness to afford multiple entries on the few remaining free time I have this month. Okay, enough with my introductory side tangent and let's move on.

If you're a comic and a horror fan and you don't know who Jay Stephens is, you should be ashamed. His comic work may not be staright up horror, but the influence, attention and interest are definitely visible though. Famous for his works like Jetcat, Tutenstein and my favorite The Land of Nod, he could be easily considered as one of the unique voices of comics today. Okay, to make this entry shorter, you can find out more about him on his personal website by clicking here.

His blog Monsterama is one of the inspirations that led to the existence of this very blog you read. It's chock full of fun stuff and links heavily similar to the interest of Genetic Freak Online, but probably with a broader scope as I tend to focus much on comics and hopefully someday movies and TV too. His focus on "cute creeps from popular culture" seriously appeals to the inner child within me. I sincerely hope you do check out one of my favorite haunts here on the internet.

Haha! "Haunts" get it?

Friday the 13th

2006-10-13T22:31:00.000+08:00

Just in case you didn't know. It is today.

The Bones of Giants

2006-10-12T22:47:00.000+08:00

Written by Chris Golden in collaboration with Mike Mignola. Featuring 70 plus of sweet black and white illustrations by Mike Mignola. Published by Dark Horse Novels.

After a seven year hiatus of buying comics, strangely enough the first thing I've bought while visiting an LCS back in 2001 was a prose novel. This one. I remember Hellboy and I had always been a fan of Mignola. I didn't even read the blurbs and texts at the back, I just picked it up and knew I wanted it based on the strength of the cover alone. I could say I'd lucked out that it was good but the fact is I always trust anything that has Mignola's name on the cover to be a solid read. However I did lucked out, as at the time, my interest for anything Norse mythology related was high. Imagine my surprise and delight when I found out the story dealt exactly that.

As with the standard practice I've just developed, I will try to review much about this book with the least amount of spoiler I can muster. This is the second Hellboy prose work that writer Chris Golden (famous for various novels of different media properties including the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer franchise) has worked on, but this one is kind of special. Series and property creator Mike Mignola collaborates with him, throwing unused Hellboy ideas for him to play with. And played with it he did, crafting a very good and entertaining read.

Anybody who has had read the Hellboy comics knows that Mignola is a very dependable storyteller on his own with a very simple and nuanced touch on narrative structure, this aided by his weird (in a good way) and heavily stylized and exaggerated art seemingly designed to strongly invoke mood makes him one of the most unique and premiere cartoonists in genre fiction. Still, if the descriptions I gave are not enough to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, the sample artworks from the book I'm providing should give you a slight idea.

On the story within the book, if I've read the introductions and dedication page right, Mike had provided Chris a very outstanding prologue to kick off the story even before the first chapter starts. I literally said "wow!" as I was blown away. It may not have been an achievement of formalistic innovation in literature, but it pretty much guarantee to pique your interest and keep your attention for the rest of the book. I am seriously tempted to quote passages from the "prologue" to show you what it is that delights me about that and yet I hold myself as I feel people need to read that themselves. I don't want to ruin anything by giving even the slightest of inklings and you should just experience it yourself. I honestly believe it's that great.

Hellboy and all images here copyright Mike Mignola

Shigeru Mizuki and Yokai

2006-10-10T22:44:00.000+08:00

I realize this could be a little bit confusing for people as most, except for a little niche outside of Japan actually knows who Shigeru Mizuki is or what Yokai really is.

YOKAI
Let's talk about Yokai first. Most people are more familiar on what a kaiju is as popularized by monsters such as Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera etc. Plus there is Kaiju Big Battel also giving more attention to it. The more popular Kaiju, which literally means "mysterious beast" in Japanese, could be considered the younger cousins of Yokai, well at least according to the Obakemono Project. So what is a Yokai exactly? Well I won't pretend I'm an expert and will just give you a quote from the Fantastic Shigeru Mizuki English Language Resource Page:

"Yōkai, or youkai, also known as obake or bakemono, are the folk monsters of Japan. They constitute a hundreds-strong menagerie of bizarre and varied creatures. They are magical, nebulous beings that exist in some strange state halfway between spirit and flesh, and are often the physical manifestations of extreme mental states, or the monstrous alteration of some ordinary object, animal, or person. They are just as varied in temperament as they are in form, and range from strange but personable goblins, to harmless pranksters that love scaring people, to dangerous ghouls that feast on human flesh."

Further information could be obtained at this link Obakemono Introduction Page should you be interested for more.

I strongly suggest you click the pages I linked above as it is a great resource for more detailed info in regards to Yokai. They have alphabetical entries for each different yokais including all pertinent infos, illustrations including the one shown on top and geographical locations.

SHIGERU MIZUKI
Now that you people know more or less what a Yokai is, let's move on to talking about Shigeru Mizuki. First some basic info from Wikipedia:

Shigeru Mizuki (, Mizuki Shigeru), born March 8, 1922 in Sakaiminato, Tottori) is a Japanese manga author, most known for his shonen Japanese horror manga Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro. A specialist in stories of yokai, he is considered a master of the genre. To a lesser but still notable degree, he is also known for his World War II memoirs, as well as a writer and biographer.

There is also an online gallery of some of his painted works of Gegege No Kitaro in a Japanese website that can be found here. That is where I got most of the painted pics I'm using for this particular entry.

Obviously, I want to talk about his specialty in yokai in regard to his work, more specifically his most famous work Ge Ge Ge no Kitarou. There are tons of artists and mangas who tackle the horror genre, many of which are of superb quality in Japan, ironically however few have focused their attention on yokais like Mizuki. This is something I really found ironic since most of their literature and entertainment always has a strong sense of cultural pride and yet this particular part of it seem to have been mostly neglected.

I will admit something here, besides being a horror buff, I'm a sucker for myths and folklores. The more complex and rich they are, the better. I find this to be a healthy interest because this immediately helps me to be familiarized with other cultures besides my own. People always link the word "globalization" to economics, I link it to knowledge, technology and understanding. I seriously despise xenophobia, but I digress now. The concept of the supernatural in every folklore fascinates me. The overly fantastic and unexplainable (or the ridiculous by modern standards) appeals to me. The fact that fear even, in the slightest, is a common reaction for some things not fully understood by every person, brings us back full circle to me being a horror buff. I know, I've beaten that simple little factoid over and over into your heads already. So let us move on.

GE GE GE NO KITARO

This is probably Mizuki's most widely known work at least in the english speaking market. Weirdly enough it has not been licensed or translated and distributed officially in english though. Take note though that some volumes had been released in a dual langauge format that includes english by Kodansha for international release, I'm not sure how well it sold though. Even with the current popularity of manga in the US, ecclectic and older titles like this are yet to be picked up by license importers probably due to its niche status and so only die hard fans are probably aware or are actually interested with this, which is a real shame.

Of course if you've reached this point of my particualr piece, you're probably interested too in this title and want more pertinent informations like story synopses, character bios, plot elements etc. Or to put it more bluntly, "where can you find scanslations?" hehehe.

Well you're in luck I guess, there are about 9 shorts (which most Gegege No Kitaro mangas are) available at the Fantastic Shigeru Mizuki English Language Resource Page for your enjoyment. It also has a chock full of informations and goodies more than I can provide you. So if I were you, I'd seriously thank all the hardcore fans who may have contributed and made that site possible.

Now before I leave, yes, like most shonen mangas, Gegege No Kitaro has been adapted into anime. In fact, it has been adapted multiple times, and since I like to spoil you, my readers(if I ever do have any) I've done the effort of searching for you, notwithstanding the fact that I want to see some of them myself. You can find them here. Please don't forget to thank the person who made that website possible like I have lazily done myself. What? I swear I had just forgotten and just remembered it now.

Well? That's it for now. Shoo! Go and enjoy the links I've posted.

Freak Show

2006-10-10T00:56:00.000+08:00

Written by Bruce Jones and beautifully illustrated by Bernie Wrightson.

Continuing our horror theme for the whole month. I want to talk about this very special piece of work that had eluded my grasp, until I finally got lucky last year.

I rarely pay, dare I say almost never pay for overpriced hardcover comics, especially 15$ for a 64 paged comic. This particular one however is one of the extremely rare occasions that I break my personal rule. I've bought this as a personal gift for myself near Christmas time in 2005. This one is special.

I was not yet born when Warren Comics, the publisher, was still active during the '70s and I doubt there was even any distribution of them here in the Philipines at that time. I missed out on those black and white magazine type horror comics, giving them a sort of mystifying appeal to me. One of my favorite artists that I discovered from that era is Bernie Wrightson. His works have that moody energy that seems very apt for horror, exuding a mixture of an exeggerated stylized influence between Frazetta and Mucha (painting-wise for the latter).

In regards to this particular comic itself, I first got aware of it in an ad on the now defunct Continuity Comics, owned by famous penciller Neal Adams. They were reprinting it at the time I guess, as this was as I found out later on was originally published by Warren too back in the '70s. Continuity was just a small publisher and I guess they got the short end of the stick when it came down to international distribution. Adding the fact that I lack knowledge of the existence of the direct market in my youth, the publisher folded even before I managed to grab myself a copy.

I was not aware of Desperado Publishing, of who they were and what they publish. This all changed late last year. I just picked up a stack of 4 issues of NYX, All Star Batman and Robin and a bunch of other stuff when I accidentally saw it displayed a top the adult section at my LCS. That unmistakeable Wrightson artwork on the cover and those freakish character designs. Needless to say, I blew my budget that night. I should have felt guilty, instead I really felt satisfied. It was the first thing I read when I got home.

As I had expected, it was beautiful and it was glorious! Bruce Jones, the writer as of late had been getting much of a negative press on the internet for his more mainstream (meaning superhero) work in comics. Whether those are warranted or not, I really don't know as I haven't read much of his current output. This I could say though, I agree with his statement that perhaps, the main character of Freak Show is one of his best creations. In fact, from his works I've read, this is one of the best I've seen. In just one short story, I managed to feel the grief and horror he was trying to effectively embue. Perhaps, the artwork helped a lot with this. However, Freak Show was not a story long enough to fill in an entire 64 page book. Desperado made a great solution by adding quite a number of short stories illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, and all I can say was this, from that lot, Freak Show had the best story. With that, I'm giving the kudos to Bruce Jones and his talent.

You can check out a 5 page review at the Desperado website by clicking here to see what I'm raving about, in case you're interested.

FREAK SHOW and all images featured copyright Bruce Jones and Bernie Wrightson, 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Marvel Monster Comics

2006-10-09T01:15:00.000+08:00

Its October!!! YAY!

My favorite month of all simply because I'm quite the horror buff. There are literally tons of topics I could discuss this month just because of the Halloween theme.

Last year, Marvel Comics did a 5th week event that really made me a happy camper. They released 4 one shot comics under the banner of the "Marvel Monster Group" reviving 4 classic monster titles. Not only did each title contained interpretations of classic "Kirby (the "King" of comics) Monsters" by current active and established pros, they also included re-mastered reprints of some original Kirby comics inside them. Plus each one had gorgeous covers drawn by the famous Eric Powell (of The Goon fame). I'm really not sure how successful this venture was, but here I am, one year later still feeling that those were some of the best purchase worth their cover price I ever had when it comes to comics.

The following are non spoilerish reviews of those said titles:

WHERE MONSTERS DWELL
Barring the reprints added in the latter half of each title, this is the only one of those four that could be considered an anthology. This 48 paged comic features 3 seperate stories featuring such classic monsters as Bombu, Manoo and Monstrollo and a reprint of "I Was Trapped By Titano: The Monster That Time Forgot" by Jack Kirby.

The Bombu story was done by what we can consider as an All Star line up of creators. Written and pencilled by Keith Giffen, inked by Mike Alrred and colored by Lovern Kindzierski (who by the way is my favorite colorist of all time), this humorous continuation of the original story published decades ago is probably my favorite in this title for the sheer fact it made me chuckle out loud as I was reading it. Even if you haven't read the original story this was based on (like I did when I originally read this story), as long as you have an idea on how corny sometimes those old comics read, you'd definitely get the whole impact of the humor of this story.

The Monstrollo story was written by Peter David, with art by Arnold Pander and colored by Val Staples. Just like the first story, this was a humorous attempt of continuing the original story published decades ago. It's a decent story, however I did felt nothing special about this one. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad story in itself as I've said, but the one preceding it was just much better. Perhaps it's the common theme that it shared with the first one that had kind of dampen my enthusiasm, but it's no fault of the creators involved if I did set my expectations a tad too high after the first story. The effort obviously done for this is apparently far from lackluster, and I'm honestly not making excuses for it.

The Manoo story, which is the last new material, was written by Jeff Parker, pencilled by Russel Braun, inked by Jimmy Palmiotti and colored by Sotocolor's J. Brown. This particular one deviates from the theme of the first two stories, as it is not a humorous continuation of the original source material. In fact, it is a straight up retelling, with slight changes for a more modern twist. I really do like this one as it oozes old school pulp entertainment.

Overll, Where Monsters Dwell is probably my 2nd favorite out of all the titles released in this particular 5th week event by Marvel. This seriously felt like a genuine horror anthology title like the ones I've enjoyed from my youth.

MONSTERS ON THE PROWL
Featuring: too many monsters that I don't have the patience to list one by one. Yes that many monsters!!! Classic reprint featured is Jack Kirby's "We Found The Ninth Wonder Of The World!".

Written by Steve Niles, who in the past few years had acquired the niche reputation of being "the" horror writer in comics, this comic had art done by Duncan Fegredo and colors by Moose Baumann.

Admittingly, I probably consider this my least favorite of all this one shots. I'm not even sure if I could put into words the reason why or if I even do have a logical reason. I don't hate it per se, but this one just did not click to me as well as the others did. It would be hypocritical for me to say that it's because this one feels more of a superhero story than a genuine horror/monster comic, when you could easily read my praise for the next two titles immediately after this. I really don't know.

On to the premise of the story. Unlike the first one, Where Monsters Dwell, this, just like the rest of the titles in the line is done as one longform comic instead of an anthology of many shorter stories. As stated before this was more of a "superhero story" than an actual monster one, albeit in the form of a "hidden years/untold tales" type one. Meaning it is set in the past, it's just that we haven't seen it before.

This comic is jam packed full of monsters, trying to fit in literally almost all the classic Marvel Monsters of yesteryear, which of course relegated plenty to just one or a few panel of cameos. According to the story it would seem that most giant monsters not inhabiting Monster Isle were captured by The Collector at one time in the past and were imprisoned somwhere under Canada, however the Mole Man also desired those said monsters. The struggle between the two villains accidentally set free all those monsters again. Now with all the rampaging monsters set loose at once on NYC, it just so happened that there were not much heroes available to save that day. Except for a few who probably can be considered monsters themselves I guess. Apologies if I spoiled much of the story premise, but there really wasn't much to begin with here, there is no such thing as subtlety or nuances with this comic. This was more about slugfests and monster vs. monster action. You'd definitely enjoy this if you like those kind of stuff.

FIN FANG 4
Featured monsters are: Fin Fang Foom, Elektro, Gorgilla and Googam, Son of Goom! and also reprinting the classic first apearance of Fin Fang Foom!

Co-written by Scott Gray with artist Roger Langridge and colored by Sotocolor's J. Brown. This is my favorite of the bunch, one big reason is I'm an admirer of Roger Langridge's art. He has this knack in really capturing the essence of certain time periods. In my view his cartooning could actually fool people that it's an old comic they're looking at if he wants too. It's not that because he's just old school with his approaches but he does it intentionally from the various works of his that I've seen.

That particular talent works for this project because, I actually felt that I was reading an old Fantastic Four comic with this. The story, seemingly set in contemporary time (though most probably placed outside of continuity) exudes a classic silver age comic aesthetic, which in my opinion could make this seemingly pulpish and disposable story timeless in years to come. The wit and pun from the characters' dialogue are quite funny and do serve as a meta commentary easily visible to people who are familiar with the history of the trends and quirks in American comics in general. I'm not trying to make this comic seem smart than it really is, it is a smart comic.

The basic premise is that from all the monsters captured throughout the years by superheroes, Reed Richards AKA Mr. Fantastic, has offered a reformation project that could help them integrate with modern human society in a more productive and peaceful manner. He has chosen 4 subjects, Fin Fang Foom, Elektro, Gorgilla and Googam, the stars of this book to participate in this experiment. I won't elaborate much more on their background as it will probably spoil details of the story.

The group didn't literally assumed the title Fin Fang Four as the name of their group in the story, but they did however assume the role of superheroes by saving the city while the Fantastic Four were gone. It wasn't for noble intentions either, though Fin Fang Foom did it for a sense of pride and responsibility as one of them actually caused all the hijinks in the first place. This is truly a fun story that I can strongly recommend with full confidence to anybody and everybody.

DEVIL DINOSAUR
Featuring The Incredible Hulk and Devil Dinosaur. Reprints the classic "I Was A Slave Of The Living Hulk" by Jack Kirby.

Co-written by Tom Sniegoski with artist Eric Powell and colored by J. D Mettler. This is yet again one of those untold tales type stories but I do feel this one was better than Monsters On The Prowl as I found this way more funnier and the story a bit more meatier. It's basically the same concept of the monster vs. monster all out brawl, but with a better focus by spolighting only two main characters (or monsters if you prefer). Not really much of a great story, but still considered a worthy purchase because of the great fun factor. Plus the art done by Eric Powell is magnificent, just like the Fin Fang 4 book, this comic exudes silver age fun goofiness if simply because of the presentation. The twist at the end regarding the Celestials involved in the story, though not entirely shocking nor surpriseing is really quite funny. I guess I can't say much about this one except that it is really a solid book all around. I have to reiterate though that the artwork is really beautiful, at least in my eyes. Besides, like all the titles in this series, this has been a welcome breath of fresh air from Marvel. I do wish that they had made this an annual tradition doing these monster themed comics.

For those interested in reading these comics, I just found out that they are collected into a one volume compilation and are still available through Amazon both in hardcover format and in trade paperback.

note: all images are copyright Marvel Comics.

It's been a while

2006-09-20T05:52:00.000+08:00

I had been so busy that I have seriously forgotten to give this blog some attention. There are a lot of stuff I want to post about, some art I'd like to display, movie and comic reviews etc.

I just seriously need to find the time to post it all. Also, I think I need a new computer. I'm starting to feel like a caveman with how old this junk of mine is. Nonetheless, I have many pleasant memories with this sucker.

In the meantime, just because I hate for this to turn into a diary type blog, I'm recommending you people to visit Nowhere Girl. It's a very nice web comic that I someday hope, Justine Shaw (the creator)find the time to finish. Check it out folks, it's really good.

Angel Puss

2006-06-14T21:48:00.000+08:00

Ah YouTube! A great repository of useless and oftentimes crazy clip materials. Sometimes of course the occasional gem of great trivial importance is just a click away, granted you are not retarded and actually do know how to use the search function. Did I just say that? How politically incorrect of me!!!

Well all that stupid set-up was just to introduce you to the Historical Preservation Library of Banned Cartoons. A website dedicated to the banned Politically Incorrect cartoons of yesteryears!

Of course this is the internet, where most people are lazy to even click a link. Have no fear, I'm embedding one of the featured cartoons here so it could stare you right in the face waiting for you to click it, so that you can watch it and see a sample of them unPC cartoons.

The title of this particular feature is Angel Puss, Duh!. The description given by the site:

Looney Tunes cartoon that is one of the infamous 'censored eleven', a group of cartoons that haven't been aired or released in any form since the 1960's due to their racial content

Hoh-kay! Sit back and enjoy now.

Sorry for the Lull as of Late

2006-06-10T20:07:00.000+08:00

Something came up. There will be a bunch of cool and interesting entries coming later as soon as I sort things out. Mind you, this blog is not really a diary like most are. I intend this place to be more of a repository for stuff I find interesting or cool.

Alan Moore and his "Lost Girls"

2006-05-28T21:51:00.000+08:00

I had heard quite a few times within fandom that if you don't know who Alan Moore is, then you aren't much of a comics fan at all. Well with things as they are, even with the recent boom of comic-based movies, the actual fan community is still a niche within a niche. So I don't think it would necessarily hurt anyone if I elaborate a bit who the man is for a broader audience in the world wide web. That is if I even have an audience, okay enough with the dilly dally.

Alan Moore can arguably be called the greatest writer so far for the medium of comics. Not really a cartoonist himself, although he did try an attempt early on in his career, he settled on just being a scribe, as he found it more of a fit for him and where his real talent lies. A very private individual and a self-proclaimed practicing warlock, he is quite known for his moodiness and stern self conviction. Once he gets mad at something or someone, he stays mad at it.

His popularity stems from the great works he has written for the medium, some of which, like the very famous "WATCHMEN", can be argued as either reinventing or reinvigorating superhero comics. Most of his other popular works like "From Hell" and "League of Extra Ordianry Gentlemen" were already adapted into bad movies much to his chagrin in retrospect. The later ones that had been adapted like "Constantine" and "V for Vendetta" were simply out of his hands because, he has sort of given up his creator ownership for them. It really is another very complicated story on its own. Simply put, Alan Moore has lived a very unusual yet creative life, full of tumultuous relationships with different publishers regarding creator rights.

Phew! Okay now that took longer than I anticipated for just another simple blog entry. Now let's get into Lost Girls.

I only found out about this particular project of Alan Moore about three years ago. This is his first self-proclaimed pornography comics work. It involves the three famous lost girls of children's literature. Alice of Alice in Wonderland fame, Dorothy of The Wizard of OZ and Wendy from Peter Pan. Right now, even unpublished, it is starting somewhat of a controversy already. If you are interested in finding out more information about this you can check out this two interesting links of an interview about the author himself here discussing the said project. This first link is about the history of the now announced three hardcover book in a slip case graphic novel. This second link, is the second part of the interview discussing his thought process and anticipation for the reactions of this particular project.

So why did I dedicate some of my time and resource just for this somewhat elaborate shilling. Well it isn't necessarily shilling, but more of as a calling of some attention to it. I find the premise of this work interesting, can pornography really be considered classy? Well I don't really know, but I'm sure as heck am willing to find out. However, the US $75.00 price tag is seriously giving me some doubts.

The Misty Ghost of Childhood Fears, Heh!

2006-05-28T04:07:00.000+08:00

I must admit the title was witty taking it from the lyrics of the actual song itself. I must admit also the second time around that Bruce Dickinson is like my most favorite heavy metal vocalist ever whether it was his solo efforts or his time with Iron Maiden.

I have seen quite a few AMVs at YouTube but this so far had attracted my attention the most. I must say I'm impreseed with the editing skills of Szi Szi,the fellow who made this video. The scenes actually followed the lyrics somewhat and is timed well with the beat and rhythm of the song. Hope you are as amused with this as I was.

I'm in a bit of a music appreciation streak as of late. Expect more of the same later.

Look Kids. Comics!!!

2006-05-27T21:52:00.000+08:00

This is a short story I had done a few years ago while I was bored.

The Human Highlight Reel: Rey Mysterio Jr.

2006-05-26T19:32:00.000+08:00

Probably one of the greatest in-ring technicians with superb mastery of psychology in our generation. Kudos to whoever made this tribute video.

ECW may have triggered the evolution of professional wrestling back in 1995, but it was both Rey Mysterio Jr. and Eddie Guerrero in their match at Halloween Havoc '97 that changed the "workrate" standard for the mainstream audience. They may have not been the scheduled main event for that night, but they obviously stole the show from other legendary names such as Hulk Hogan and Lex Luger.

2006-05-26T19:12:00.000+08:00

Welcome to my blog. This is an initial testing post for what should be my home here in the world wide web.