-
American Gothic (1995) s01e06 – Potato Boy
CBS didn’t air Potato Boy during “American Gothic”’s original run. It started the network shuffling the show order in earnest, presumably to make the show more accessible to new viewers. Since it’s television—network television—they somehow managed to skip a literal onboarding episode. Gary Cole narrates Potato Boy’s first act, clueing the viewers in on the… 📖
-
A Fistful of Dollars (1964, Sergio Leone)
A Fistful of Dollars opens with a long, primarily dialogue-free sequence introducing the star—Clint Eastwood—and the setting, the desolate near-border Mexican town of San Miguel. The sequence introduces the town to Eastwood and Eastwood to the viewer. He quietly watches the goings on, principally Marianne Koch’s family troubles. She’s living in a little house under… 📖
-
Beware the Creeper (2003) #5
Well, I remembered the twist ending of Beware the Creeper, but without the problematic, reductive, low-key, passive misogynist, ableist context. For a while, it’s a surprisingly good issue. Writer Jason Hall has finally gotten his bland white guy police detective narration down. Not for the resolution epilogue, of course; there’s nothing to be done with… 📖
-
A Fish Called Wanda (1988, Charles Crichton)
A Fish Called Wanda introduces each of its main characters during the opening titles, cutting from one actor to another, starting with screenwriter John Cleese. He’s a barrister. Then it’s Jamie Lee Curtis; she’s a vivacious American. Then Kevin Kline is a deadly but dim-witted American. Finally, Michael Palin. He loves animals, including his fish… 📖
-
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977) #257
If it weren’t for the backup, which pairs writer Gerry Conway with Steve Ditko (penciling, with Dan Adkins inking), this issue would give the impression Conway doesn’t like the Legion. Or, if he does, he thinks their positive traits are being smug asswipes. In addition to the charming, sexy (really) backup story about Bouncing Boy… 📖
-
Clerks III (2022, Kevin Smith)
Clerks III starts as a series of vignettes reintroducing the characters. It’s been fifteen years since the previous entry; since then, spoiler alert, one of them has become a widower, and neither has done anything with their lives. For the first time, Jeff Anderson gets a little more to do than Brian O’Halloran, though only… 📖
-
Tomb of Dracula (1972) #24
The issue opens with original series protagonist Frank Drake whining about being an unexceptional white man to his extraordinary vampire-hunting girlfriend, Rachel Van Helsing. The only thing the scene is missing is Rachel telling Frank she needs him because no one else will love her with her Dracula-inflicted face scars. It’s a beautiful scene—art-wise—with penciller… 📖
-
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e09 – Whose Show Is This?
“She-Hulk” does not end with a second season announcement, which is—possibly reasonably, possibly not—heartbreaking. Especially since the mid-credit sequence erases one of the episode’s “wins.” Because even though “She-Hulk” is a Marvel show in an MCU, the show and its star—Tatiana Maslany (She-Hulk gets significantly less to do this episode)—would rather be a superhero legal… 📖
-
Dan Dare (2007) #2
Writer Garth Ennis starts distinguishing what makes Dan Dare different this issue as Dan and Digby get underway with their mission to save the galaxy. Or at least the human colonists. Though the humans and some of the alien race, the Treens, live together on some planets. The issue opens with Dan and Digby reunited,… 📖
-
All Creatures Great and Small (2020) s03e05 – Edward
It’s a great episode; easily the best of season three. The show takes a big bite into a challenging, oft-avoided subject—Anna Madeley’s character’s estranged son (Edward)—she called the cops on him when he robbed her previous employer. I think these are season one details, then in season two or maybe a Christmas special, the son… 📖
-
Werewolf by Night (1972) #21
Initially, this issue feels like newish writer Doug Moench taking Werewolf out and kicking its tires. He brings back Buck Cowan—who hasn’t been around since he was low-key living with seventeen-year-old Lissa Russell—as Jack’s best friend but only for a couple panels. There’s a lengthy flashback to the destruction of the Darkhold, sadly without the… 📖
-
Little Woods (2018, Nia DaCosta)
It’s impossible to say how Little Woods would play if Lily James weren’t terrible. As is, the film’s a waiting game to see if James will ever have a good scene. Spoiler alert: she doesn’t. She’s so bad I was expecting the production company to be “Lily James Productions.” She lets down writer and director… 📖
-
Scene of the Crime (1999) #4
The whole issue doesn’t rest on the action sequences, but it’d still have been nice if penciller Michael Lark had broken them out differently. There’s this very anti-climatic car chase, foot chase, car chase, shoot-out sequence, and it should have been better. Though it also doesn’t matter because it’s just the red herring ending. Scene… 📖
-
The Legion of Monsters (1975) #1
Legion of Monsters opens with a defensive letter from editor Tony Isabella, responding to the Marvel faithful who were mad at the inglorious cancellation of the other black and white magazines. Isabella explains the books weren’t ever losing money; it’s just not in Marvel’s best interest not to make money. If readers really want black-and-white… 📖
-
My Life Is Murder (2019) s03e06 – Bride to Bee
Last episode, we found out Lucy Lawless’s fashionable curmudgeon (her costumes are phenomenal this season) hated Christmas. This episode, we open with her hating on summer. To cheer her up—after a muted flirtation about being on an ice cream date—copper Rawiri Jobe gives her a case: a bride dying at her own wedding, allergic to… 📖
-
Shadows on the Grave (2016) #2
Shadows on the Grave #2 is not a bad comic, but it does show how far down I’ll follow creator Richard Corben without batting an eye. Once again, Corbin’s got multiple done-in-ones, then a chapter in his Greek epic. If it weren’t for the Greek epic featuring a cyclops eating a bunch of soldiers, it’d… 📖
-
Red Room: Trigger Warnings (2022) #2
I don’t think I’ve cringed as much during a Red Room since the first issue. Maybe it should’ve come with a Trigger Warning–wokka wokka. But, no, it’s more just the relentlessness of the Red Room footage. Creator Ed Piskor once again splits up the pages; in the top left, he’s got a suicide note from… 📖
-
Infinity 8: Volume Four: Symbolic Guerilla (2018)
Symbolic Guerilla is my favorite Infinity 8 so far. I’ve read this one before, but not while going through the series, so I couldn’t really compare. Now, I can. It’s for two obvious reasons: protagonist Patty Stardust is the best agent so far, and Martin Trystram’s art is fascinating. Unlike the previous stories, there are… 📖
-
Werewolf by Night (2022, Michael Giacchino)
It’s not going to seem like it in a few paragraphs, but I am a fan of director Giacchino. Or, more accurately, I am a fan of Giacchino’s directing. Werewolf by Night is easily the most interesting MCU project in the brand’s fourteen years. Most of the credit goes to director Giacchino, who does a… 📖
-
Beware the Creeper (2003) #4
The cop’s narrating again. Not sure why, not after he took an issue and a half off. Writer Jason Hall puts too much on the cop, especially since he gets tricked twice in the issue. One’s plainly clear; the other he should’ve figured out since it happened during the war. But he lacked the critical… 📖
-
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e08 – Ribbit and Rip It
A couple things to get out of the way again for this episode. During Tatiana Maslany’s perfect beyond words Ferris Bueller “go home already” fourth wall breaking (she’d already inhabited the part, now it’s time for her to bend the devices to her will), she says next episode is the “finale.” They’re doing another scene… 📖
-
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e07 – The Retreat
I’ll disclose I did not go into this episode without expectations. A friend said it was when “She-Hulk” hits its full potential, and he’s entirely correct. I just didn’t realize how much the show was going to include in that potential. This episode gets silly and soulful in a way reminiscent of the Dan Slott… 📖
-
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977) #256
It’s one of those Legion of Super-Heroes issues where they’re asshole teenagers (actually much older people pretending to be teenagers to deceive their time-traveling friend Superboy), and it seems more like the Legion of Super-Delinquents. This issue, they assault some theme park owner and terrorize innocent people out of the place so they can create… 📖
-
Tomb of Dracula (1972) #23
So this issue continues from Giant-Size Chillers, even though the timeline’s off between that comic and the previous Tomb. Writer Marv Wolfman tries to retcon it a little, with the flashback to Chillers showing Dracula talking to his stooge about his Russian holiday, even though the Russian vacation went unmentioned in Chillers itself. The timeline… 📖
-
All Creatures Great and Small (2020) s03e04 – What A Balls Up!
No avoiding Nicholas Ralph’s desire to join up anymore. It’s front and center, complete with the questionable choice of playing instrumental cadences in the background when Ralph’s thinking about it. They only do it twice—maybe three times, and I’ve blocked one—but it’s the worst creative decision I can remember on the show. Thank goodness the… 📖
-
American Made (2017, Doug Liman)
While Tom Cruise is most of the show in American Made, it’s not a star vehicle. Star vehicle suggests it’s got somewhere to take him. Made exists because of Cruise’s likable performance, not the other way around. Thanks to that likability, he even gets away with an eighties TV “Louisiana” accent. The film also avoids… 📖
-
Detective Comics (1937) #479
I wasn’t expecting much from this issue; the team of writer Len Wein, penciller Marshall Rogers, and inker Dick Giordano hasn’t impressed in their one-and-a-fifth (they did a bookend on a reprint) issues of Detective so far. Wein’s writing a sequel to Rogers’s arc with Steve Englehart, trying to maintain continuity, like Batman hallucinating a… 📖
-
American Gothic (1995) s01e05 – Dead to the World
This episode’s got five writers credited, apparently two different teams (Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess on one, Shaun Cassidy, Michael R. Perry, and Stephen Gaghan on the other). Guild arbitration or extreme fairness? Regardless, World works better than almost anything else with five credited writers; the episode’s all “Gothic”’s strengths, none of its… well, weaknesses… 📖
-
Dan Dare (2007) #1
Dan Dare’s all about the reassuring, calming presence of the capable colonialism and patriarchy (i.e., the British Empire). I have a feeling it’s going to get even more interesting once Anglophiliac Dan Dare returns to active duty. The original series—the British Buck Rogers—dates back to the fifties, and writer Garth Ennis keeps with the mid-century… 📖
-
My Life Is Murder (2019) s03e05 – Silent Lights
It’s a Christmas episode—or the closest (I think)—“Murder” has ever gotten. From the first scene, we find out Lucy Lawless is a Grinch, which comes as no surprise. She has a series of rambling complaints about Hallmark holidays, but basically, everyone forgot about her. Except for Ebony Vagulans and Lawless didn’t appreciate it (plus, it… 📖
-
American Gothic (1995) s01e04 – Damned If You Don’t
Even in 1995, “American Gothic” knew not to cast an actual teenager as the fifteen-year-old Brigid Brannagh plays. It just didn’t know not to still ogle early twenties Brannagh as she plays that teenager. While, sure, it’s Southern Gothic, it’s also contorting itself to allow objectifying Brannagh, even though she’s in constant danger of rape… 📖
-
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e06 – Just Jen
Are self-contained wedding episodes a thing? This episode of “She-Hulk” breaks the fourth wall so Tatiana Maslany can tell the audience it’s one of those episodes. Those being self-contained wedding episodes, which—if they are a thing—I have many questions about. Like do they usually involve random guest stars with no bearing on the series, who’ve… 📖
-
Werewolf by Night (1972) #20
I’m not sure Doug Moench read much Werewolf by Night before writing this issue, which has eighteen-year-old Jack Russell walking around talking like a cheap forties gumshoe. Moench also doesn’t seem to know the bad guys kidnapped his sister because she too has the werewolf curse; when Jack goes to rescue her, the bad guy—Baron… 📖
-
Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s02e08 – Allison’s House
Despite the title, this episode is not about Allison’s House, though there are technically two houses in the episode Annie Murphy’s protagonist could be possessive about. It’s also not really about Murphy; it is, but it also isn’t. The show’s grown quite a bit since its first episode, with Murphy realizing her life as the… 📖
-
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e05 – Mean, Green, and Straight Poured into These Jeans
There aren’t any big guest stars this episode; it’s all regular cast—including Renée Elise Goldsberry getting a big part after showing up in the background for an episode. Two episodes? Did I sleep through a scene in the first episode where they introduced the law firm staff? Because they really should’ve. Especially since Josh Segarra’s… 📖
-
All Creatures Great and Small (2020) s03e03 – Surviving Siegfried
Like they heard my questions, this episode has Rachel Shenton returning to her family farm to check in on things. Sort of. There’s no discussion of whether or not she’s still working at the farm or what’s up with little sister Imogen Clawson (who doesn’t appear in this episode; I keep forgetting this season is… 📖
-
Scene of the Crime (1999) #3
Scene of the Crime doesn’t exactly stall out this issue, but it definitely goes into idle. Not sure why I’m doing car references, possibly because of an ill-advised speeding car sequence, which artist Michael Lark visualizes too quickly. Our hero, Jack, has just been to a hippie commune where he’s gotten in trouble, a la… 📖
-
Pickup on South Street (1953, Samuel Fuller)
Pickup on South Street is not based on a novel; the opening titles have a story by credit for Dwight Taylor, with director Fuller getting the screenplay one. The film’s got a peculiar plotting and roving protagonist, plus some terrific monologues, and I was wondering if they were Fuller or someone else. They’re Fuller. Fuller… 📖
-
Dracula Lives (1973) #13
They do briefly mention Dracula Lives’s impending demise; very, very briefly. It’s an excellent finale, with a couple surprising successes, but—outside a three-page Russ Heath portfolio (two Draculas and a Lilith, with lots of nipple bumps the Code’d never allow)—it’s a very different kind of issue. Besides the letters column (which doesn’t seem to reference… 📖
-
Shadows on the Grave (2016) #1
Despite having read this comic before, I did not heed Mag the Hag and was surprised when the last story in the anthology really is a straight Greek tragedy. The comic opens with Mag the Hag introducing herself—she’s Shadows’s Crypt-Keeper—and then going on at length about the contents of the issue, including the story of… 📖
-
All Creatures Great and Small (2020) s03e02 – Honeymoon’s Over
Having returned from his honeymoon and discovering the pleasures of the flesh, Nicholas Ralph is no longer obsessed with enlisting in the Army to fight in World War II. There aren’t even any references to it in the episode. It’s just about the changes at the veterinary hospital, with Samuel West getting annoyed at there… 📖