Category: Z-View

American Monster #1 by Azzarello & Doe / Z-View

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American Monster #1 is part of an on-going series published by Vertigo Comics.

Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Juan Doe
Colorist: Juan Doe
Letterer: Juan Doe
Regular Cover Artist: Juan Doe

*** Beware – spoilers may be found below ***

In a small Midwestern town, a large man with a horribly scarred face gets off a bus, and takes a room. He spooks the locals–nobody knows him–or do they? It’s impossible to say be-cause he seemingly has no face. The man’s intentions remain unknown, until he takes on a corrupt sheriff and the rural crew of racist arms dealers. The town’s impression of the man changes, and he’s seen as a hero…until his real intentions bubble to the surface. The man isn’t there to end the gang, but to take it over. And he’s just getting started.

American Monster is a winner.  Not a done-in-one or by the numbers mini-series, American Monster is instead a crime/mystery story created by a talented team.  There are a lot of questions set up in this issue and my guess is that as the answers play out over the course of this yarn, they won’t always be what we’re led to believe.

Is the disfigured man, a war hero, a criminal or both?  Who blew up his vehicle?  Was that bank robbery money the disfigured man flashed?  And how does he tie in to the local gang leader who just brutally murdered two people?

Azzarello and Doe make for a great creative team.  It’s nice to have a comic with both a high level of artistry in the writing and art.  I’m looking forward to more of the same in each issue.

American Monster isn’t for kids or those offended by mature language.

 

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The Twilight Children #4 by Hernandez and Cooke / Z-View

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The Twilight Children #4 is part of a four-issue mini-series published by Vertigo Comics.

Writer: Gilbert Hernandez
Artist: Darwyn Coole
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Cover Artist: Darwyn Cooke

*** Beware – spoilers may be found below ***

The mysteries have been piling up for 3 previous issues and while we get some of them answered, many of the answers are going to be left to reader interpretation.  That could be a good or bad thing depending on your, uh, interpretation.

The story ends with the mysterious woman on the beach with the young scientist, one of the CIA agents, and Nicholas.  One of them is not what he seems.  If you’re looking for a totally satisfying happy ending, I didn’t find it… although it wasn’t a totally sad or terrible ending either.  I have no doubt I will find more hints of what’s to come and things to like with each re-reading of the series.  Then again, it could be one of those stories where the journey to the ending is more important than the ending itself.  I guess it is all in how you interpret it.

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Rough Trade by Todd Robinson / Z-View

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Rough Trade by Todd Robinson

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Polis Books

First sentence…

We were bored as ****.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Rough Trade is the sequel to Robinson’s The Hard Bounce (which I loved) featuring Boo and Junior.  Boo and Junior have been best buds since their childhood days in a group home.  Although grown, neither has really matured.  By night they are bouncers at The Cellar (a local tavern / music venue ) and by day (and nights they’re not bouncing), they hire out as security for other bars, finding runaways, or whatever will pay some bills.

When Boo is asked by a waitress at the Cellar to scare off ex-boyfriend, Byron, you know that Junior is going to tag along.  One thing leads to another and Byron is left beaten, bloody but in no danger of taking the big sleep.  So when Byron is found dead all evidence points to our boys.

The police bring Junior in for questioning and Boo knows it won’t be long before the cops will pick him up.  The clock is ticking and it is up to Boo to figure out not only why Byron was killed but who did it.  Along the way there will be beatings, shootings, mysteries and secrets revealed and a lot of fun.

Fun for the reader that is. Robinson has a unique voice and turns the tough guy cliches into humorous situations without writing down to the genre.  I loved The Hard Bounce and think Rough Trade is an even better book.

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The Twilight Children #3 by Hernandez and Cooke / Z-View

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The Twilight Children #3 is part of a four-issue mini-series published by Vertigo Comics.

Writer: Gilbert Hernandez
Artist: Darwyn Coole
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Cover Artist: Darwyn Cooke

*** Beware – spoilers may be found below ***

Ok.  The mysteries continue to pile up.  Who is the beautiful woman?  Why does Tito go from man to man? What are the beautiful woman’s powers?  Where is she from?  Why did she freeze the CIA (are they?) agents?  Why did those that touch the agents also become frozen?  When the orbs appear and drop people off why do they quickly teleport them away again… and where do they go? What cause the town people appear to be sleep walking/talking at night?  When the beautiful woman says she’s here to save us, can we trust her?

The plot grows ever thicker.  I’m hoping for an ending that will satisfy the many questions that have been raised throughout the series.  Darwyn Cooke’s art continues to highly entertain.

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The Twilight Children #2 by Hernandez and Cooke / Z-View

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The Twilight Children #2 is part of a four-issue mini-series published by Vertigo Comics.

Writer: Gilbert Hernandez
Artist: Darwyn Coole
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Cover Artist: Darwyn Cooke

*** Beware – spoilers may be found below ***

The town sheriff has his hands full this issue — there’s the new beautiful woman in town, who just may be an alien.  Then there’s two guys who just arrived and we’re pretty sure they’re CIA.  Tito (who was cheating with the fisherman) is now coming on to the young scientist.  Her husband Nicholas is more upset over that than Tito’s cheating with Anton so he enlists Anton’s aid to kill the scientist.  The children blinded by the orb last issue can remarkably see again, and for some reason (that we know) the scientist ends high up in a tree unconscious and in the nude.

The plot thickens as orbs secretly appear, people disappear and a murder attempt is set in motion.

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The Frozen Ghost (1945) / Z-View

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The Frozen Ghost (1945)

Director: Harold Young

Screenplay: Bernard Schubert and Luci Ward from an original story by Harrison Carter and Henry Sucher

Stars: Lon Chaney Jr., Evelyn Ankers and Milburn Stone.

The Pitch: “It is time for another Inner Sanctum Mystery!”

Tagline:  “Nameless Terror!..creeping from the walls of a Museum for Murder!”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

The famous Hypnotist Gregor the Great [Chaney] mistakenly believes he killed an audience member during his act by using his mental powers.  When it is shown that the man died of natural causes, Gregor is still shaken.

Gregor ends up at a woman friend’s wax museum where things really get strange… his woman friend disappears and is thought to be dead and Gergor is the main suspect.  Will Gregor find the person(s) behind her disappearance and clear his name?  Will those watching the movie even care?

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Rocky (1976) / Z-View

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Rocky (1976)

Director: John G. Avildsen

Screenplay: Sylvester Stallone

Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Tony Burton, Joe Spinell, Thayer David, Frank Stallone and Stan Shaw.

The Pitch: “Hey, the screenwriter wouldn’t sell without starring in it, but for a million bucks we should be able to make a small profit.”

Tagline:  “His whole life was a million to one shot.”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Rocky Balboa [Stallone] is a collector for a neighborhood loan shark [Spinell] and a small-time boxer.  Rocky has a thing for Adrian [Shire], the sister of his best friend Paulie [Young] but she’s so shy, he’s getting nowhere fast.

When the Heavyweight Champion of the World, Apollo Creed [Weathers] learns that his scheduled opponent won’t be able to fight him in Philadelphia and no other top contenders are ready to take the fight on short notice, Creed comes up with a gimmick.  He’ll give a local fighter a shot at the title.  Because Creed likes Balboa’s Italian Stallion moniker, he decides to give Rocky the title shot.

Rocky reluctantly takes the fight — no one has ever gone the distance with Creed — and feels even if loses but is standing at the end, then he’ll have proved he isn’t just another bum from the neighborhood.

On the surface Rocky is a boxing movie but at the heart is a love story, a tale of relationships and a man’s desire to prove his worth.

Rocky premiered at the perfect time for me.  I was 17 years old and had followed Stallone’s career since Lords of Flatbush.  To see Sly getting his shot (after turning down a huge payday for the screenplay and not starring in the film), and to see the film be the perfect combination of cast, director, editing and score resonated with me.  Rocky became my all-time favorite movie on the first viewing and has remained so.

Often when reviewing or rating Stallone films I have to qualify my rating because of Stallone being my favorite actor.  I don’t have to do that with Rocky.  Rocky is that great of a movie winning the Academy Award for  Best Picture of the Year as well as many other awards and nominations.

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Casablanca (1942) / Z-View

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Casablanca (1942)

Director: Michael Curtiz

Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch and Casey Robinson (uncredited) from the unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick’s by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison

Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson.

The Pitch: “Hey, why don’t we make a romance picture with Bogie?”

Tagline:  “They had a date with fate in Casablanca!”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Casablanca in 1941 is a popular last stop to escape Nazi Germany which is taking over countries throughout Europe.  Rick Blaine [Bogart] runs the most popular nightclub in Casablanca and has let it be known he “risks his neck for nobody”.  Everyone is welcome in his “Cafe Americana” club so it is not unusual to find escaping refugees (hoping to secure letters of transit), those preying on the refugees, Nazis, partisans, pickpockets, and gamblers there.

Rick’s life is complicated when Lazlo [Henried] a world renowned Nazi resistance fighter shows up in Casablanca one step ahead of the Nazis.  Lazlo is accompanied by his wife, Ilsa [Bergman] who we discover was Rick’s love in pre-war Paris.  On the day they were to leave Paris (before the Nazis takeover), Ilsa mysteriously left Rick.  She was the love of his life and now she’s back… but with another man.  And not just any man.

Rick has two letters of transit which could be used to save Ilsa and Lazlo at great risk to his own life… but Rick “risks his neck for nobody”.  Rick is bitter over Ilsa leaving without a word but he still loves her.  Perhaps Rick could save Ilsa and himself…

It’s rare to find a movie as perfect as Casablanca.  Every scene sings.  It’s perfectly cast, expertly directed and improves with each new viewing.

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The Jungle Captive (1945) / Z-View

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The Jungle Captive (1945)

Director: Harold Young

Screenplay: Dwight V. Babcock and M. Coates Webster

Stars: Otto Kruger, Vicky Lane, Amelita Ward and Rondo Hatton

The Pitch: “Isn’t it time to make another Ape Woman movie?”

No Tagline:

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

The third in the Paula DuPree, Ape Woman trilogy.  Seems there were a lot of mad scientist doctors back in the 40’s and their life goal was to turn a gorilla into a woman.  Pretty sick, huh?

In this outing Dr. Stendahl (Kruger) has his minion, Molach the Brute (Hatton) steal the Ape Woman’s body from the morgue.  Of course Molach isn’t called the Brute because of his brainpower and he kills the morgue attendant in the process.  This puts the cops on the trail of the murderer.

Once Stendahl has the body, he’s ready to perform his experiment to bring her back to life.  Of course he needs the blood of a woman.  Naturally he decides to kidnap and use the blood of his female lab assistant (Ward) rather than a woman with no connections to him.

As the cops close in on him, Stendahl must face off against Molach (who has fallen in love with the lab assistant), the lab assistant’s fiance, the cops and the Ape Woman.  It’s like the Mexican standoff at the end of Reservoir Dogs if the Reservoir Dogs standoff wasn’t suspenseful.

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King of the Underworld (1939) / Z-View

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King of the Underworld (1939)

Director: Lewis Seiler

Screenplay: George Bricker and Vincent Sherman from a story by W.R. Burnett

Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Kay Francis and James Stephenson.

The Pitch: “We could put Bogart in that crime story by WR Burnett…”

Tagline: “Ruthless Killer vs. Lady Doctor ! It’s red-blooded action all the way!”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Carol Nelson (Francis) is a doctor as is her husband.  Things are going well until her husband accidentally gets involved with gangsters led by the notorious Joe Gurney (Bogart).  When her husband is killed in a police shootout, they believe that Carol is also involved with the gangsters.

In order to clear her name Carol comes up with a dangerous plan to take down the entire gang.

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Mean Business on North Ganson Street by S. Craig Zahler / Z-View

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Mean Business on North Ganson Street by S. Craig Zahler (2014)

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

First sentence…

The dead pigeon flew through the night, slapped Doggie in the face, and bounced to the ground, where its cold talons clicked across the pavement as it rolled east.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Detective Jules Bettinger, after mishandling a case is given the choice: resign, be fired or accept a transfer to one of the most understaffed and highest crime ridden cities in the country.  Reluctantly Bettinger accepts that transfer and moves his wife and child to his new job.

Once there Bettinger finds things worse than he could imagine.  There’s no trust between Bettinger and his new partner who may be involved in illegal activities with other cops.  When Bettinger uncovers a conspiracy to kill police officers, he and his family become targets leading to a bloody ending.

Mean Business on North Ganson Street isn’t for the faint hearted.  The violence is brutal, and often hard to stomach.  Sometimes Zahler seemed to be showing how smart he was with his word choices, but getting into the book I began to think that instead it was to highlight what a fish out of water Bettinger was.   Mean Business on North Ganson Street wont’ be everyone’s cup o’ joe, but I liked it a lot.

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Omerta: A Novel (The Godfather Book 3) by Mario Puzo / Z-View

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Omerta: A Novel (The Godfather Book 3) by Mario Puzo (2000)

Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Random House

First sentence…

In the stone-filled village of Castellammare del Golfo, facing the dark Sicilian Mediterranean, a great Mafia Don lay dying.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Don Raymonde Aprile is the last of the mafia Dons.  A widower with three successful children and an adopted nephew, all in legitimate businesses and doing well, Aprile is ready to retire to a simpler life.  Yet he knows that once he steps down as Don, he puts his life and his children’s in danger.

Retiring will be seen as a sign of weakness and opportunity for those wishing to assume his position.  Aprile’s impending retirement is also forcing an FBI agent who has worked for years to bring down April to cut some corners.

An unexpected murder will set in motion the Aprile family, forces of the mafia and the FBI into one last battle.

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Angel in Black: A Nathan Heller Novel by Max Allan Collins / Z-View

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Angel in Black: A Nathan Heller Novel by Max Allan Collins  (2001)

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: NAL

First sentence…

The two pieces of her lay porcelain-white in the ankle-high grass and weeds of a vacant lot on South Norton Avenue, like the upper and lower sections of a discarded marionette.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

I’m a sucker for the Nate Heller series by Max Allan Collins.  Heller is a detective who finds himself involved in famous murder cases.  Collins is a stickler for historical accuracy and has created a timeline and plausible setting that allows Heller to find himself (over the course of the series) mixed up in everything from the Lindbergh baby murder to the assassination of JFK!

This time out Heller ends up at the scene of the Black Dahlia murder and discovers that he had dated her in Chicago just months before her murder.  She had told him she was pregnant and he was the father… then disappeared.  Since Heller had since married her murder could ruin his marriage, his career and makes him the number one suspect in her death.  Heller must stay a step ahead of the reporters and the law and find out who killed the Black Dahlia before he ends up taking the fall.

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Bad Boy Brawly Brown: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley / Z-View

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Bad Boy Brawly Brown: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley (2002)

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Little Brown

First sentence…

Mouse is dead.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Easy Rawlins used to be the man that could fix problems.  Now it is 1964 and those days are behind him.  Easy is raising a family and trying to stay clear of anything that would bring danger to his home.  When an old friend asks Easy to just check on young Brawly Brown the job seems easy enough.  Brawly is running with a Black militant group and his mother just needs to know he’s okay.

Soon enough Easy finds himself a suspect in a murder case that has the militants on one side and the cops on the other.

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The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson / Z-View

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The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson (2011)

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; Reprint edition (March 15, 2011)

First sentence…

Repaiman Jack awoke with light in his eyes, white noise in his ears and an ache in his back.

 

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

The Tomb is the first in the Repairman Jack series and an excellent introduction to his world.  Jack lives off the grid and makes his living solving other people’s problems.  Often the solutions aren’t legal but Jack is no hitman. Still, once Jack’s girlfriend Gia discovered the nature of his work, she distanced herself and small daughter from Jack.

When Jack is offered a job to find a stolen necklace that is a matter of life and death, he takes on the task despite long odds.  Jack recovers and returns the necklace to learn, only too late, that it holds an ancient power over monster-like creatures that are now being guided to kill his ex-girlfriend, her daughter and Jack.

F. Paul Wilson has created a believable world by seamlessly meshing the detective and horror novel through the creation of Repairman Jack.  I loved The Tomb and look forward to reading all of the Repairman Jack novels.

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