Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Oliver Lyttelton and Playlist have come up with their choices for The 50 Best Movie Monsters of All Time.
The great thing about this list is that by going 50 deep they are able to highlight some monsters usually not considered (and in many cases monsters that didn’t star in movies but made appearances).
Diversions of the Groovy Kind has posted the splash pages from the first classic run on Iron Man by David Michelinie, John Romita Jr., and Bob Layton. When these three fellows were on IM it was a special time and the splashes served almost as second covers.
Thanks to Diversions for giving us another look!
Adrien van Viersen is storyboard artist (X2, X3, Game of Thrones, and The Flash) and self-proclaimed life-long fan of Superman. His favorite Superman is that of the Golden Age.
van Viersen has created a Superman story that’s a love letter to that earlier, more innocent age. In the free fan fiction download (that is as good if not better than most published comics) we learn how Clark Kent discovered bullets didn’t hurt him, that a simple pair of glasses could be a great disguise and where he got the Superman persona.
All in all great fun!
Alex Maidy and JoBlo.com posted their choices for the Top 10 Comic Books That Should Become R-Rated Movies. By now you know how this game is played. Using just their list I present my top three choices…
Other series that didn’t make the list but would be excellent candidates: 100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso; Sleeper by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips; Gravedigger by Chris Mills and Rick Burchett, Polar by Victor Santos and Scout by Tim Truman.
The PlayList recently posted Quentin Tarantino’s Choices for the 11 Greatest Movies of All Time.
Tarantino has created an interesting list. I’ve never developed a top anything past two: Rocky and The Wizard of Oz. I think if I tried the rest would be interchangeable based on my mood.
/Film posted their choices for The Best Movie Creatures of All Time. Using just their list, my top three (in alpha order) are:
Now if I went off-list, then I would have considered…
Joss Whedon (Writer – Director – Producer – Actor) makes some interesting observations in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Two things that stuck out for me were Whedon’s thoughts on reboots/reunions and binge-watching tv episodes.
Whedon on reboots/reunions…
“I see a little bit of what I call monkey’s paw in these reboots. You bring something back, and even if it’s exactly as good as it was, the experience can’t be. You’ve already experienced it, and part of what was great was going through it for the first time.”
Whedon is on point. As much as we want to bring back favorite favorites, it is so difficult. There has to be some growth or we’re getting more of the same and we’ve seen that. And Whedon is so right — part of what was great was experiencing it for the first time.
Whedon on binge-watching tv episodes…
“…the more it (television watching) becomes lifestyle instead of experience. It becomes ambient. It loses its power, and we lose something with it…I would not want to do it. I would want people to come back every week and have the experience of watching something at the same time… I loved event television.”
Technology has made movie and television watching less of an event. I love the convenience of being able to record and watch what I want when I want, but when was the last time watching something became an event (not counting live broadcasts)? When I was a kid, The Wizard of Oz was shown once a year and you’d better be in front of the tube when it was broadcast. I can still remember the thrill of being allowed to stay up late to watch it, or Hitchcock’s The Birds. The series finale of The Fugitive was another tv event that was huge. So was the murder of JR, a new episode of All in the Family.
Binge-watching takes away the event feel. Not only that, because the series is available ANY time you want, there is less of a pull to watch it. My wife and I tuned in every week for Longmire. When it switched to Netflix, we followed but now we could watch it whenever. We have a full season yet to be watched. Same with Daredevil. I’ve yet to watch a single episode of House of Cards or Luke Cage. What’s the rush? They’ll be there when I’m ready.
Francesco Francavilla has created a very cool limited edition print for Kong Skull Island. There are actually two versions that you can see at Mondotees.com.
Wow! Baby Driver looks like a great ride. Check out the official trailer below and the international trailer even farther down.
Have you seen these Rocky and Mickey limited edition statues coming from NECA?
These limited edition maquettes (statues) are based on a famous stopmotion commercial from the late 1990s that starred Rocky and his trainer Mickey in puppet form. Even in stylized form, those two had selling power!
Working from the actual puppets used to make the commercial, we’ve reproduced Rocky and Mickey as extra-detailed maquettes. Rocky stands approximately 12″ tall and has fabric boxing shorts. Mickey stands approximately 10″ tall and features fabric hat and clothing.
Both statues are in accurate scale to each other and have movable eyes that can be positioned in various directions.
Comes with two display bases. Limited to 1500 pieces worldwide
Any of my deep-pocket buddies wondering about an early birthday or Christmas present for me… now ya know. ; )
Padraig Cotter and ScreenRant present 15 Revival Series We Want That Will Never Happen. Using just Cotter’s list, here are my top 3 suggestions…
Breaking Bad and Seinfeld were two shows that I absolutely loved and they made their wanted revival list. Not for me though. For Breaking Bad the story has been told. And told very well. Leave it alone. As for Seinfeld, it is a classic comedy series. Perhaps the greatest comedy series ever. The finale is a stain on the memory of Seinfeld and a revival would just look like grumpy middle-agers complaining.
How about these three series that didn’t make the cut, but I’d revive in a heartbeat if given the chance:
Germain Lussier and io9 present 21 Movies I’m Embarrassed to Admit I Love. Using just Lussier’s list, here are my top 3 movies…
Although they didn’t make the list, two movies that would have are The 13th Warrior and Babylon A.D. — love ’em both even if no one else does!
If you’re a fan of fanzines, then you’ve got to check out Ken Meyer, Jr.’s monthly column Ink Stains. Each month Ken (who is an amazing artist) posts… well, let’s let Ken explain…
I have a collection of over 200 fanzines from the 60’s-80’s that I plan to scan and talk about, one at a time. I hope to have some of the participants answer a few questions. Many of those participants are established comics professionals now, while some have gone on to other things. I will show a few snippets from each zine and give you a link to download a pdf of the whole thing, which I hope all of you will do!
For Ink Stains 44, Ken took a look at Whizzard 12, 13 and 14 from 1979 – 1981 from Marty Klug.
Whizzard 12 features –
Whizzard 13 features –
Whizzard 14 features –
Boy, did these bring back memories. I owned all of these fanzines back in the day. Ken points out in his Ink Stains article that Whizzard was more focused on interviews than art and that art is timeless. As I looked back over these issues (which I loved at the time) I kept thinking I’d have loved to seen more art. Still, it was great to revisit them.
Ah, the memories of the glory days of fanzines. Thanks to Ken Meyer, Jr. for making these available!
