Starlin Trek: WARLOCK BY JIM STARLIN:THE COMPLETE COLLECTION (book review)

Posted on July 19, 2015 by gary loggins

I usually write about old movies here, but they’re not my only interest. When I was younger, back in the 70s, I collected comic books. I had stacks and stacks of them: Marvel, DC, Charlton, Atlas, undergrounds. Even the oversized Warrens and of course, Mad. Now that I’m slightly older (well, okay maybe more than just slightly), I’ll occasionally pick up a trade paperback that grabs my nostalgic interest. While browsing through the local Barnes & Noble recently, my gaze came upon one that screamed “Buy me now”! That book was WARLOCK BY JIM STARLIN: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION.

Starlin’s cosmic opus starred Adam Warlock, a Christlike space hero, pitted against Thanos of Titan and his quest to posses the Infinity Gems. Adam has the soul gem imbedded in his forehead, an vampiric emerald that steals mortal souls. The story’s themes concern philosophical questions about life and death, chaos and order, gods and madmen. Very heavy stuff. The books weren’t all that popular though, and the series only lasted from 1975 to 1977. Way ahead of its time, Starlin’s Adam Warlock saga has now become considered a classic of the comic world as the years have passed.

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Jim Starlin is now recognized as one of the giants of the comic industry. Starlin wrote and drew the series with a deft hand, knowing exactly what he wanted to say and how to get there. He was ably assisted by inker/finishers Steve Leialoha and Joe Rubinstein. They make Starlin’s pencils and layouts pop with cosmic wonder. Tom Orzechowski’s lettering aids tremendously in setting the tone and mood for this galactic epic. The book’s loaded with extras, including a “lost” Warlock tale Starlin conjured up as a fill-in issue. The adventure is fanatastic as a whole, but some favorite chapters of mine are the Steve Ditko inspired “1000 Clowns” (Strange Tales #181), the solo interlude starring Warlock’s degenerate friend Pip the Troll (Warlock #12), and the cataclysmic conclusion from Avenger Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2.

Marvel Cinematic Universe fans (of which I’m one) are already aware of the power of the (now renamed) Infinity Stones. We’ve seen Thanos appear in the two AVENGERS flicks and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. And where Thanos treads, can Adam Warlock be that far behind?? One can only dream…

Appreciating Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Jedadiah Leland

First published in 1950, Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles is a collection of 28 short stories about humans exploring and colonizing Mars while those left behind on Earth destroy each other in a never-ending atomic war. When I first read it back in middle school, it blew my mind. When I reread it this weekend, I discovered that it still holds up. 65 years after first being published, The Martian Chronicles is still a classic of American literature.

When Ray Bradbury died in 2012, many obituaries called him a “science fiction writer.” Bradbury always resisted that label, saying in one interview, “First of all, I don’t write science fiction. I’ve only done one science fiction book and that’s Fahrenheit 451, based on reality. It was named so to represent the temperature at which paper ignites. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So Martian Chronicles is not science fiction, it’s fantasy. It couldn’t happen, you see? That’s the reason it’s going to be around a long time – because it’s a Greek myth, and myths have staying power.” There is very little science to be found in The Martian Chronicles. Humans travel between Earth and Mars via rockets and the trip only takes a matter of days. Characters frequently ride boats down the water-filled Martian canals. Humans have little trouble breathing on Mars and only occasionally complain about the thin atmosphere. Bradbury is not interested in Mars as a real place. Instead, he uses Mars as a way to explore what humanity would do if given a second chance.

The humans who come to Bradbury’s Mars all have one thing in common. All of them are fleeing an imperfect Earth. Some, like the members of the first three expeditions, come to Mars as explorers. Some, like the troubled Jeff Spender, seek to learn from Martian civilization. Others, like Sam Parkhill, come to Mars to make money. Fathers Peregrine and Stone come to Mars in search of a new world in which to spread the word of God. Mr. Stendahl comes to Mars to escape government oppression. Others come to escape the wars of Earth. Throughout The Martian Chronicles, characters deal with issues that are just as relevant today as they were in 1950. Bradbury’s vision of human society is not a positive one, especially when compared to his Martians.

All of the short stories are linked by the human characters’ struggle to come to terms with Martian society. After killing the members of the first three expeditions, the Martian race is wiped out by chicken pox, a disease that did not exist on Mars until the arrival of the humans. Only a few survive and go into hiding, watching as human move into their old cities and set up their own civilization. Ghost-like, the Martians and their dead society haunt every story in The Martian Chronicles.

There are a few stories in The Martian Chronicles that have not aged well. The Silent Towns, in which a man named Walter Gripp is horrified to discover that one of the last women left on Mars is overweight, is a mean-spirited and unpleasant story to read. But the collection’s best stories — And The Moon Be Still As Bright, The Third Expedition, Usher II, The Off Season, The Million-Year Picnic, Night Meeting, and especially There Will Come Soft Rains — still hold up as entertaining and thought-provoking works of speculative fiction.

In 1980, The Martian Chronicles was turned into a miniseries. I will be watching and reviewing it later this week.

Going Crazy With Sam Peckinpah and Max Evans

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Jedadiah Leland

At the beginning of The Wild Bunch, William Holden says, “If they move, kill them.” That line became so associated with director Sam Peckinpah and his films that it was even used as the title of his biography. Sam Peckinpah was known for both the violence of his films and the turmoil of his private life. He fought studios and film critics and directed six classic films before destroying himself and his talent with drugs and hard living. When he died in 1984, he was could not get a job in Hollywood but his legacy as a filmmaker has lived on.

In his memoir, Goin’ Crazy With Sam Peckinpah And All Our Friends, novelist Max Evans takes a look back at his long and often contentious friendship with Peckinpah. When Sam Peckinpah first met Max Evans, it was to buy the rights to Max’s western novel, The Hi-Lo Country. Though Peckinpah never made the movie, he and Evans remained friends for the rest of Peckinpah’s life. As Evans puts it, he and actor James Coburn were the only two to stay with Peckinpah until the very end.

When talking about Peckinpah, Evans does not pull any punches. Much of the book details Peckinpah’s casual cruelty. When Peckinpah’s son David wrote a script, Sam dismissed it as a “piece of shit.” Evans interviewed Peckinpah’s girlfriend, Katy Haber, about the time that Peckinpah hit her and how actor Steve McQueen reacted when he found out. Towards the end of his life, Peckinpah was told that he would die if he did not stop drinking. Sam gave up liquor and turned to cocaine instead. At one point, a paranoid Peckinpah even asked Evans for help in hiring a hitman to “take care of” a film producer that Peckinpah disliked.

Evans also talks about the other side of Sam Peckinpah. According to Evans, the Peckinpah that visited him in New Mexico was a different human being from the Sam who threatened producers and shot guns at actors. In Hollywood, Peckinpah felt had to prove he was a madman. With Max, he could just be “Ol’ Sam.” Max even suggests that Sam may have been a mystic and includes several stories about Sam’s “supernatural” abilities.

Along with writing about Sam Peckinpah, Evans also talks about his colorful encounters with actors like Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, L.Q. Jones, Woody Harrelson, and Sean Penn. Evans is a natural storyteller and Goin’ Crazy With Sam Peckinpah is an engaging and breezy trip through the Hollywood of the 60s and 70s.

2014 In Review: Lisa’s Top 10 Non-fiction Books of 2014

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I should admit that the title of this post is misleading. While it is true that listed below are 10 of my favorite non-fiction books of 2014, I’ve specifically limited my picks to books that dealt with entertainment, pop culture, and the creative process. With that in mind, here are my 10 favorite non-fiction books of 2014:

(And yes, you should read everyone of them.)

Tomorrow, I conclude my look back at the previous year with the list that everyone has been waiting for: my 26 top films of 2014!

Previous Entries In TSL’s Look Back At 2014

2014 in Review: Lisa’s 20 Favorite Novels of 2014

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Continuing our look back at the previous year, here are my 20 favorite novels of 2014! And yes, you should read every single one of them!

Tomorrow, we continue our look book at 2014 with some of my favorite nonfiction books of the year!

Previous Entries In TSL’s Look Back At 2014

Book Review: PreDumb: Before I Came To L.A. by Mark Hayes

Posted on June 1, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, two years ago, I had the pleasure to read, review, and recommend a book called Randumber by Irish comedian and DJ Mark Hayes. In Randumber, Mark wrote about the experience of being an Irishman in that most American of cities, Los Angeles. He brought a biting but never cruel wit to his examination of American culture and, if my previous review didn’t convince you to order that book, you should do so right now.

And while you’re ordering Randumber, why not go ahead and get Mark’s latest book, PreDumb: Before I Came To Los Angeles, as well?

As you might guess from the title, PreDumb serves as a prequel to Mark’s life in Los Angeles. I’ve just recently finished reading it and, speaking as someone who is endlessly fascinated by her Irish roots, I absolutely loved it and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Written in an episodic fashion, PreDumb follows Mark’s life from his childhood and adolescence in Ireland to his adventures in Germany and Hong Kong. Each chapter deals with a different topic, covering everything from Mark’s relationship with his family to his first awkward experiences with the opposite sex to the first time he drank booze. There’s also a bit of space devoted to soccer because Mark is Irish, after all.

And that’s one of the main reasons why I enjoyed PreDumb. While the experiences of childhood and adolescence are universal, Mark brings his own uniquely Irish spin to the telling. As Mark writes at the beginning of one chapter, “Ireland is a great place to go if you ever want to hear some made up facts. We are masters of myth.” Myself, I can’t wait until I visit Ireland in person but, having read Predumb, I almost feel as if I’ve already been there.

Mark tells his stories with a gentle humor that’s full of both nostalgia and a very obvious love for the people that he left behind in Ireland when he came out to L.A. The end result is a very likable book, one that celebrates both family and youth. On a personal note, when I first started reading PreDumb, I was actually going through one of my dark moods. Reading the book really helped to lighten my mood, it’s just such a cheerful and heartfelt story that there’s no way that it couldn’t have.

It’s a book that you should read.

You’ll enjoy it, I promise.

And you can order it here!

Lisa Marie’s 12 Favorite Novels of 2013

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Continuing TSL’s look back at the year that was, here’s my 12 favorite novels of 2013!

(And yes, you should read them all.)

Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Theresa Ann Fowler
The Flamethrowers by Racel Kushner
The Fate of Mercy Alban by Wendy Webb
Someday, Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
Red Hill by Jamie McGuire
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
Just One Day by Gayle Foreman
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Tomorrow, my look back at 2013 continues with the list that everyone’s been waiting for — my top 26 films of 2013!

Other Entries In TSL’s Look Back At 2013:

Lisa Marie’s 12 Favorite Non-Fiction Books of 2013

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I should admit that the title of this post is misleading. While it is true that listed below are 12 of my favorite non-fiction books of 2013, I’ve specifically limited my picks to books that dealt with entertainment, pop culture, and the creative process. With that in mind, here are my 12 favorite non-fiction books of 2013:

(And yes, you should read everyone of them.)

1) The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell

2) Crab Monsters, Teenage Caveman, and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman: King of the B-Movies by Chris Nashawaty

3) 100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age by Kelly Grovier

4) The Wes Anderson Collection by Matt Zoller Seitz

5) Odd Type Writers by Celia Blue Johnson

6) Mad Girl’s Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted by Andrew Wilson

7) The Reckoning: Women Artists of the New Millennium by Eleanor Hartney, Helaine Posner, Nancy Princethal, and Sue Scott

8) Difficult Men by Brett Martin

9) A Story Told Lately by Anjelica Huston

10) Slimed: An Oral History of Nickelodeon’s Golden Age by Matthew Klickstein

11) The Secret History of Vladimir Nabakov by Andrea Pitzer

12) Norman Mailer: A Double Life by J. Michael Lennon

Honorable Mention: Lost Cat by Caroline Paul, my favorite non-entertainment related nonfiction book.

Tomorrow, my look back at 2013 continue with my 12 favorite novels of 2013.

Other Entries In TSL’s Look Back At 2013:

Lisa Marie’s Ten Favorite Novels of 2012

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Continuing my series on the best of 2012, I now present my 10 favorite novels of the previous year. For a lot of reasons, I didn’t get to read quite as much as I wanted to over the past year. My New Year’s resolution — well, one of them — is to do better in 2013.

Without further ado, here’s my list. All 10 of the novels provided an entertaining, thought-provoking read over the past year and you should read them all.

1) The Great Escape by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

2) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

3) Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel

4) Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

5) This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz

6) The Book of Summers by Emylia Hall

7) The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

8) Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz

9) Blue Moon Bay by Lisa Wingate

10) On Demon Wings by Karina Halle

Coming up tomorrow, it’s the list that we’ve all been waiting for — my favorite 26 films of 2012!

Horror Review: Day by Day Armageddon (by J.L. Bourne)

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Arleigh

The last decade or so has been a sort of renaissance for all things zombies. Zombies have become the “monster of the moment” in the entertainment industry. These shambling undead (or Olympic sprinters for some of the more modern take on the genre) have permeated film, video games, comic books and novels. Even tv has been invaded by the recently ambulatory dead. J.L. Bourne debuts with a fast-paced and exciting first novel that takes the well-known conventions of the zombie tale and gives it a nice personal touch to set it apart from the many other zombie novels flooding the market.

Day by Day Armageddon doesn’t go the usual straight narrative of most novels. The novel’s written in the point-of-view of an anonymous narrator, but told through an epistolary-style Ssmilar to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Bourne’s novel tells the story of this one man’s struggles to survive the gradual collapse of civilization and then the days in a post-apocalyptic undead world around him through journal entries he has taken up to keep himself sane and focused. Bourne’s choice of writing style lends a bit of a personal touch to the proceedings as it imbues the tale with less hyperbole and flowery language. The journal entries gives the reader just the right amount of look into this man’s life instead of bombarding the reader with everything. Not everything’s explained in these journal entries, but enough clues were hinted at to keep the reader interested in reading more. From the beginning of the crisis (which has a timely feel of today’s current events) to the confusion of the situation spiralling out of control with our narrator as confused as the people in charge seem to be.

Day by Day Armageddon doesn’t lack for action and gory detail, but they seem to be more of affectations to the rest of the tale. Bourne concentrates more on the thoughts of his anonymous narrator. From how to plan for a siege to finding a way to distract the growing undead in his first refuge in order to rescue a neighbor who might be the only living person left the area. When the novel does finally have the narrator and the other survivors place themselves in danger in order to find more supplies or a better refuge, Bourne does a great job of keeping the pace of the story fast and tight. There’s not a lot of overly descriptive passages of the environment and its new undead in habitants. This minimalist style also lends itself to keeping the characters real. They behave with a rational and logical mind in trying to cope and deal with the worsening situation outside their refuge. Plans are thought out in advance and every precaution and angles factored in whatever decision they make in regards to their survival. In fact, Bourne’s characters seem to have either read Max Brook’s Zombie Survival Guide or at least something similar since they behaved and acted just how Brook’s guide said people need to if they’re to survive a coming zombie apocalypse.

If there’s a bone to pick with Day by Day Armageddon it would be the ending. To say that it ends in a cliffhanger would be an understatement. The last couple of journal entries became so action-packed that it succeeded in raising the adrenaline and making this reader want more of the same. But just when things really got cooking the book ends suddenly and with no resolution. The novel’s suppose to be just the first book in a larger series. Other than that little complaint, I thoroughly enjoyed this debut zombie novel from a new writer who seems to enjoy the zombie subgenre and knows how to handle it well. No running zombies for Mr. Bourne, though he’s hinted at radioactive zombies with abit more oomph than their less glowing undead brothers. Here’s to hoping Bourne keeps the sprinting undead to a minimum. Now where’s that second volume to this series.