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2021 Year End Honorable Mentions – Books/Comics

I posted my favorite books/comics of 2021 a few weeks ago. As usual, I had a few entries that didn’t necessarily make my favorites list, but I still wanted to talk about them. Good and bad.

Starting with books…LET’S BEGIN!

Shadow & Bone / Seige & Storm – The first two books in the Grishaverse series. This is what the Netflix show is based on, well the first book here, and another book in the series are mashed together. I read the first two books in 2021. I like a lot of what’s in them. The world that’s set up is awesome. This version of magic is closer to super powers than actual sorcery. I like the main protagonist, Alina. She’s got a nice arc through 2/3 of the first book, until she doesn’t. The biggest issue I have with this series is Alina’s love interest, Mal. He is the f**king WORST. Completely worthless. Shadow & Bone starts off with Alina being best friends with Mal and pining for him while he goes off completely ignoring her. Typical storyline. But then Alina is found to be Grisha, which means she goes off to a special school to learn about her powers. At this school, she discovers that she can’t use her powers. They refuse to work on command. She has to work through her feelings about Mal, who isn’t Grisha, and realize that she was suppressing her powers and hiding them from Mal so he didn’t find out. because he was kind of anti-Grisha. Alina ultimately gains control of her powers again because she gives up this weird attachment to Mal. BUT THEN, Mal returns and completely destroys everything Alina had gained from the previous portion of the book. And he’s terrible to Alina. He says he loves her, but his actions say otherwise. He treats her like garbage. I hate him. And I don’t know why he came back. Alina didn’t need his love or his help in the climax of the book. And he’s still there being a complete wet blanket throughout the second book. So, these books are great. The characters are awesome. The world is interesting. The one character of MAL is *very* close to being a deal breaker. I hate him so much.

Nathaniel Cade
The President’s Vampire series by Christopher Farnsworth – This series is so high premise I get vertigo just thinking about it. One hundred and fifty years ago a vampire was discovered on a whaling vessel that had docked in Boston Harbor. Thinking quickly, President Andrew Johnson has a voodoo witch doctor bind the vampire to the office of the President of the United States. From then forward, the vampire, now known as Nathaniel Cade, is sworn to protect the office and the country from all unnatural enemies. I love the idea of this series; imagine the series 24 but swap out Jack Bauer for a vampire. That’s essentially what this is. And it’s totally played straight. They handle all the supernatural elements very well. And along with all the unnatural goings on, we do get a bit of political intrigue as well. So far it’s only these three books, but Farnsworth also wrote two novellas featuring Nathaniel Cade; The Burning Men and Deep State. This is a fun series that I really enjoyed reading this year.

Recursion by Blake Crouch – I love time travel. Especially when a book does something different with it. And this book sort of intertwines time travel, with memory, and alternate realities. I really don’t want to give anything away, because there’s a lot of surprises here, but, on a high level, there is a doctor that is working on a cure for Alzheimers. Her mother has it. She is hoping to create a system that allows people to relive their memories in a fully immersive VR environment. Needless to say, her work is picked up and sort of steered into a new direction and all hell breaks loose. Like seriously. This book gets BANANAS. I really enjoyed it. It literally just missed out on being in my “favorites” list.

Now, how about some comic book honorable mentions?

Maniac of NY
Maniac of New York by Elliott Kalan – This comic is a *lot* of fun. It takes the premise of…”What if Jason Voorhees were real, and nobody could stop him? So city officials and the people in the city decide to make the best and just live with him.” How would peoples’ lives change? This really puts forth some interesting thoughts. Radio morning shows have a Killer Watch during the traffic report. They let you know if he’s been seen on the subway. And there’s a task force set up to stop him, but no one seems to be able to as he appears and disappears like a ghost. I read the first 5-6 issues of this and really liked it.

Flash 36 Flash 61
The Flash (1987-) #36 – 61 – Being a big fan of The Flash, I read this title as it was coming out starting with issue #3 in 1987. Back then I probably read up to like issue 50 or so. I only stopped about the time I went to college and stopped reading comics for the most part. Back in 2020, I decided to start a reread of this title. I read issues #1-35 in 2020, and then I continued through issue 61 in 2021. Mark Waid started his storied run in issue #62, but my memories of this series are the first 61 issues before Mark even got there. And I thoroughly enjoyed my reread of this series. These Wally West issues are pretty great. He loses his powers. Gains them back. He wins the lottery and becomes rich. Then loses all his money and becomes poor only to get rich again. It’s a roller coaster. And there are more than a few issues that are weird and not great. Linda Park is completely wasted in her run, even becoming possessed by what seems like an ancient Irish wizard, but turns out to be the Kilg%re. Lots of weirdness and wackiness. But most of it is really good.

So there are a few extra book/comic recommendations. Look for some movie honorable mentions later this week!

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2020 Year End Honorable Mentions – Books/Comics

Posted in Blog Series, Book Report with tags Book Report, books, comic books, pop culture, reviews, Year End Books on January 18, 2021 by Paxton

I posted my favorite books/comics of 2020 last week. As usual, I had a few entries that didn’t necessarily make my favorites list, but I still wanted to talk about them. Good and bad.

Let’s do books first, then I’ll do some comics.

Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline – The long awaited sequel to Cline’s smash hit Ready Player One. Yes, it came out in November 2020. It came out, and then sort of just disappeared. I didn’t really hear anyone talking about it. But I read it over Thanksgiving break. And it’s…good. But there are like three asterix on that good. I really like the premise. There’s another quest in this book for Wade. It’s well constructed. Cline is great at that. Where Clline has issues is characters. I still do not like Wade. He’s supposed to be complicated, I get that. He’s the best when it comes to quests, but he’s a total mess when it comes to relationships. But come on. Almost as soon as the book starts we learn that Wade and Art3mis have broken up because Wade is an insufferable dick. And it doesn’t stop until the very end. Cline still layers on the pop culture references, and this time he varies it a bit so it’s not *just* 80s stuff. But, there’s A LOT of it. Especially in the beginning. And speaking of the beginning, the first 80 pages is essentially Wade doing an exposition dump of everything that’s happened to the High 5 in the last five years. So, yes, the book has problems. BUT, that being said, don’t think that I didn’t enjoy jumping right back in to this world. And the OASIS. And the other characters besides Wade. Cline creates an involving story. It does get a bit bananas at the end. Like I didn’t really see it coming. And I’m not 100% sure what I think about it, but overall I would say that I liked the book. I would love to see Speilberg mold this into a sequel to the first movie.

Anyone
Anyone by Charles Soule – Soule is one of my favorite comic book writers. This is his second novel. I read his first novel, The Oracle Year, back in 2019, which I really liked, even though it didn’t make my favorites lists that year. This is another strong entry for Soule. A neuroscientist is looking for a cure to Alzheimer’s and discovers a way for people to switch their conscious mind into someone else’s body. Realizing the implications and knowing that the people funding her research would take it for their own purposes, she tries to hide it. And things sort of go downhill from there. This is a good book. As good as the last one. A thriller. A “woman on the run” type story. And it plays with some moral ethics that I found fascinating. It does sort of “drop you at the end” without telling you what happens, which normally drives me up the wall, but I kind of rolled with it here because I enjoyed the story. But I still really want to know what happened.

Alfred Hitchcock and the The Three Investigators – This was the series that got me into reading in the 5th grade. It was the first series I remember reading multiple books and actually looking forward to more books being released. A group of guys in my class would would run to the shelves during library time to check for new books and scream triumphant if we ever found any. So, a few years ago, when my son was still a baby, I found some cheap-ish paperback copies (the three I list above) of these books on eBay and ordered them, with the thought that I’d eventually read them to him. Thanks to quarantine, this was the year. We read all three of the above books and he enjoyed them. I did too. I’m so glad they held up. I would have been crushed if I had read them and been like, “Why did I like this garbage?” When I knew we were enjoying them, I went back out to ebay to find more and dammit if this series hasn’t become collectible. And prices are too damn high for the titles I want.

Now, how about some comic book honorable mentions? So last year was a year I caught up on comics I had read and loved back in the 80s (The Flash by Mike Baron/William Messner-Loebs), and comics that I never read but was always curious about.

Booster Gold – Booster always seems on the fringe of being popular. He’s one of those heroes that is obscure enough that you can tell other comics people you love him and it has cache. I remember his series by Dan Jurgens back in 1985 but I never got around to reading it. So, I decided to give it a shot. I had a collection of the first 12 issues. I like Dan Jurgens and I like his art. I even like the initial premise of Booster Gold. He’s the other hero in Metropolis trying to feed off Superman’s criminal leftovers. We get snippets at first of Booster’s time travel background, but it’s not really served up right away. I really had a hard time liking this series. Jurgens made Booster just a bit too smug for me. He reminds me of Greg Kinnear as Captain Amazing in Mystery Men. He has an agent, and is all about branding and image. Booster’s agent tries to secure movie deals and sponsers. That’s all a cool idea for a super hero, it honestly is, but for only one super hero in a group. As the main hero in an extended series, that gets old real quick. Booster also gets a serious inferiority complex through several issues about working in Metropolis the same time as Superman. I was like, if it’s such a big goddam deal, Booster, then move. I ultimately stopped rooting for him and just quit reading. I had intended to read up to issue #12, but stopped after issue #7.

Blue Devil – Next up I read the first five issues of Blue Devil by Gary Cohn and Dan Mishkin. I think I liked this a little better than Booster Gold. Movie stunt man Dan Cassidy is fused to his special effects suit when a demon is suddenly freed on the island where they are shooting a movie. Now Dan has to cope with the suit being a part of him and being the new super hero on the block. This book was fun, had some interesting ideas, and for the most part, I enjoyed reading it. It reminded me a lot of the great never-been-collected Roger Stern/Tom Lyle Starman series I loved so much in the 80s. Starman’s Will Payton and Blue Devil’s Dan Cassidy are similar “everyday men” that are suddenly into the limelight as super heroes. I like that premise. I had actually reread Stern/Lyle’s 25 issue run on Starman a few years ago and loved it. And I look forward to continuing Blue Devil, especially because in issue #6, we get the debut of one of my favorite obscure DC villains, Bolt.

The New Teen Titans – This title was super popular back in the day. It helped that Marv Wolfman and George Perez were superstars when they did it. But despite Kid Flash being on the team, I just never got around to reading it. I got this collection which has their initial debut in DC Comics Presents, as well as the first 8 issues of their main title. I read the whole thing. It’s not bad. The initial issues have the Teen Titans going up against Deathstroke the Terminiator (who would go on to be a major villain for them), Ravager, and the Fearless Five. Those stories I very much enjoyed. Then, it goes into a multi-issue arc where we learn the origin of Raven, we meet her demon lord father, Trigon, and lots of other stuff that I just didn’t care about. As for the characters. I liked Robin. I loved Starfire. Cyborg is so full of angst. And Wally West. Kid Flash is….well….he’s not great. He seems a bit out of character. He flies off the handle at little provocation and he’s kind of a standoff-ish jerk. So, this doesn’t sound like high praise, I know. I enjoyed about half the issues I read. The thing is, I can see lots of potential. So I’m probably going to read the next collection to see where Wolfman/Perez take them next.

Look for some movie honorable mentions later this week!

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2020: Animaniacs – Hot, Bothered & Bedeviled (1998)

Posted in AWESOME-tober-fest, Blog Series, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, The Devil, TV shows with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2020, Fantasy Island, Halloween, pop culture, The Devil, TV shows on October 30, 2020 by Paxton

Here we are guys, the day before Halloween! I can’t believe we made it. It was dicey there for a bit, but we made it through, relatively unscathed. This AWESOME-tober-fest has been fun. I’m really glad I got to do it. I’ll be honest, behind the scenes, it had it’s ups and downs. This was the first time I did the Mon, Wed, Fri format. I think it worked. So maybe I’ll try it again next year. We’ll see. Anyway, let’s get on with today’s article!

Okay, last time I looked at a Tiny Toons cartoon that was an adaptation of The Devil and Daniel Webster and featured an appearance of the Devil voiced by Ron Perlman. Today, I’m going to look at the return of Ron Perlman’s Devil, not on Tiny Toons, but on Animaniacs!

It’s from Season 1, episode 29 – Hot Bothered & Bedeviled! It’s a pretty great little adventure. Unfortunately there’s no nod or wink to the previous Ron Perlman Devil episode. That would have been awesome. But it’s a lot of fun filled with all the pop culture references you’d expect.

So let’s take a look at the episode.

Animaniacs title cards!

We start off with a Sadam Hussein analog giving a speech to his people when the podium he’s on opens up beneath him…

…and he’s immediately sucked down into Hell. Is that how the Devil is working in this cartoon? He just takes whomever he wants regardless of if they’ve died or not? Yikes.

After falling into Hell we see these three demonesses singing a tune reminicent of the Andrews Sisters’ Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B. With the requisite Hellish refrences. It’s actually pretty good. And if you’re going to Hell, it’s a nice way to be welcomed there.

We see some of the tortures that are going on in this Hell. One of them being marathons of The Facts of Life!

Here we are, the return of Ron Perlman’s Devil from Tiny Toons!

Then the Animaniacs show up unexpectedly a la Bugs Bunny not making that left turn at Albuquerque.

As soon as Wakko finds out they are in Hell, he runs all the way back up to the surface of the Earth and brings back a snowball to test out that age old idiom. And his conclusion, “Yep, it never stood a chance!”

Like Silly Symphony Hell’s Bells, we get an appearance of Cerebus! The Devil’s three headed hound and guardian of the Gates of Hell.

The Devil has had enough of their antics! He’s keeping them in Hell to torture them!

First the Devil locks them in a room to listen to nothing but political folk music from the 70s. I love that Bob Dylan is in this version of Hell.

Stand up commedian
While running all over Hell trying to get away from the Devil, the Animaniacs distract him by putting up a stage so he can do a stand up routine.

I think this is the first time we see the River Styx and the boatman in Hell! And the Animaniacs rope him into doing a musical number!

The Devil catches up to them. And he’s furious!

Trapped by the Devil, Yakko in his best Kirk impression asks Wakko if he has anything in his “gag bag” that could help. Wakko says no. Continuing as Kirk he asks Dot for any analysis or comments. She says “nothing Yakko”. So Wakko turns and asks Bones who says, “Darnit Yakko, I’m a doctor, not a magician!” Star Trek reference!

The Devil, completely fed up with their antics literally kicks the Animaniacs out of Hell so hard that they wind up in Heaven.

And that’s Part II of the animated Ron Perlman Devil. This one really felt like a classic Loony Tunes adventure. I really liked it. And the animation, as per usual on both Tiny Toons and Animaniacs, is fantastic.

So that’s it. Tomorrow is Halloween! I don’t have an article scheduled for tomorrow, so this is it for this year’s AWESOME-tober-fest! I hope you enjoyed it and, whatever you do, please have a fun but safe Halloween.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2020: Tiny Toons – Daniel Webfoot and the Devil (1995)

Today I’m going to look at a cartoon special that has an adaptation of The Devil and Daniel Webster. It was a Tiny Toons special called Night Ghoulery.

Night Ghoulery

It was originally supposed to air in October 1994, but it was pushed to May 1995. The overall premise of the special is a parody of the Rod Serling anthology show, Night Gallery, which ran on NBC from 1970-1973. There are several segments each parodying a different story, like Tell-Tale Heart, Hound of the Baskervilles, Night of the Living Dead, and there’s even an adaptation of that classic Twilight Zone episode Terror at 20,000 Feet. And they also do a version of The Devil and Daniel Webster. But before we get to that I want to point out the awesomely spookified opening.

We see Buster and Babs as zombies.

We see them using flashlights to create spooky lighting.

Still in the intro, we get to see the gang trick or treating. We can see Plucky in the back on the right dressed as Freddy Krueger. In front of him is Fifi La Fume and she’s dressed as what looks like Dot from the Animaniacs. Moving left I see Shirley the Loon and I think she’s dressed as Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie. And finally Hampton is dressed as Barney Rubble.

Now let’s get on to the show. The wraparound segments, like I said, are based on Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.

Babs is the host of this special and she’s standing in a spooky old art gallery which is what Rod Serling did for Night Gallery.

We actually get an appearance of an animated Siskel & Ebert about half way through and they give their review of the special so far.

But let’s take a look at the segment, Daniel Webfoot and the Devil.

Daniel Webfoot and his driver arrive at the mansion answering a distress call. Webfoot can already see there are spooky shenanigans going on.

We see Montana Max quivering in front of a large figure. He clearly looks in trouble.

The camera pans to see the Devil. In a purple suit, spats and matching top hat. This Devil is actually voiced by Ron Perlman and he’s a very likable chap. Perlman being the Devil here feels like an homage to him being Hellboy. I mean the Devil even looks like an interpretation of Hellboy. But that movie wouldn’t happen for another 9 years. So maybe Ron Perlman in Hellboy is an homage to *this* cartoon. (I know, I just blew your f**king mind).

Webfoot arrives and immediately tries to wheel and deal with him. And the Devil is totally open to negotiation. Webfoot tries to claim that Montana Max was unduly forced into his contract…

…and we hear from Montana himself that, no, he entered into the contract of his own free will. He’s sitting amongst a bunch of money to prove it.

Like the original story, the Devil pulls in a group of damned souls to mediate the negotiation.

Ultimately, Webfoot can’t get around the signed contract…

…and both he and Montana wind up in Hell by the end.

I love Tiny Toons, so of course I love this very loose adaptation of The Devil and Daniel Webster. And I love Ron Perlman’s strong voice behind this very likeable Devil. Apparently people liked it because Perlman would return to voice the devil in another episode. But not Tiny Toons!

Stay tuned to see Ron Perlman’s second appearance as a cartoon Devil on Friday!

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2020: I Read Movies – The Halloween (1978) movie novelization by Curtis Richards

We are in the home stretch, guys. Halloween is on Saturday! So to begin this week long Halloween party I’m going to divest from the Devilspeak for a day and point you to the Halloween episode of my movie novelization podcast, I Read Movies. This month is my 4th annual Halloween episode and I am covering the highly coveted and rare novelization to John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) by Curtis Richards.

Lots of amazing extra insights into the nature of Michael Myers in this book. I think you’re really going to enjoy this episode. Download and check it out in all the typical podcast places.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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