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Resident Alien (2019) s02e16 – I Believe in Aliens
Well, they got me. After last episode’s seemingly reductive, overly saccharine stumbles, I thought I’d figured out how “Resident Alien” was going to be closing out season two. I was wrong on most counts. The arc I was most hoping would get some resolution does—it’s something they’ve literally been putting off half the split season,… 📖
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Red Room: Trigger Warnings (2022) #1
The cover to Trigger Warnings #1 promises a “self contained” story, which is technically accurate–all five issues of Red Room, the first series and now this issue, have been self-contained, but self-contained’s not the same as a good jumping on point. Especially since this issue is a direct sequel to the original Red Room #1,… 📖
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American Gothic (1995) s01e03 – Eye of the Beholder
There’s a slight mea culpa feel to this episode, which is really Pilot: Part III. The show’s finally ready to set up the ground situation, for real this time, and it’s going to be more accessible. There aren’t any big CGI set pieces this episode, but there’s more with crows being sheriff Gary Cole’s evil… 📖
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Eve’s Bayou (1997, Kasi Lemmons)
Eve’s Bayou is Southern Gothic, but it’s got a kids’ summer story grafted onto it; by the end, the two genres are working together to great effect. I mean, the end’s got problems, but the way the film gets to it is captivating. The film opens with Tamara Tunie narrating from the future—when she was… 📖
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Beware the Creeper (2003) #3
Almost nothing happens this issue. The cop starts investigating the missing sister, thinking she’s the Creeper. He teams up with her twin, Maddy, for a combination walking tour of Paris and detective snoop. He discovers all the things we saw happen last issue, which isn’t great plotting from writer Jason Hall. Depending on the final… 📖
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American Gothic (1995) s01e02 – A Tree Grows in Trinity
Tree picks up immediately after the pilot, only it’s been however many months since they shot the pilot, and now they’re filming for fall airdates. Lucas Black and Sarah Paulson are both a little visibly older, Jake Weber’s got a completely different haircut, Paige Turco’s costumes are better, and Gary Cole’s even eviler. With the… 📖
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Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977) #255
In a genuinely startling event, it turns out when it comes to Joe Staton, sometimes you have to fight fire with fire—this issue features Staton’s most successful work. His inker? Vince Colletta. It’s not good art by any stretch, but it’s far more competent and consistent than Staton’s been on the book. Will Colletta be… 📖
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My Life Is Murder (2019) s03e04 – The Village
I think this “My Life is Murder” is the most empathetic episode ever. When Lucy Lawless gets to the solution to her murder mystery, there’s a lot she doesn’t like about it and has feels. She also has feels because her brother, Martin Henderson, has gotten out of prison and hasn’t contacted her. He’s the… 📖
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American Gothic (1995) s01e01
I was happier than I should be to discover executive producer Sam Raimi didn’t direct this pilot episode of “American Gothic.” Raimi and Rob Tapert’s Renaissance Pictures produced the series (for Universal and CBS), so I just figured Raimi directed the first one. But, no, it’s Peter O’Fallon. Instead of talking about Raimi being unable… 📖
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Tomb of Dracula (1972) #22
I got halfway into this issue, until Quincy Harker shows up after Lilith attacked him in Giant-Size Chillers, and stopped to go read Giant-Size Chillers, as it seems to have taken place before this issue. But then the end of the issue says go read Chillers and then you’ll be ready for next Tomb. Dracula… 📖
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Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s02e07 – The Problem
As is not uncommon for pay cable original programming, “Kevin Can F**k Himself” always ends with a teaser for the next episode. What’s coming up next week or just in general for the season; I think cable shows have been doing it for almost twenty years. There’s not much original footage in the teaser for… 📖
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Detective Comics (1937) #478
When Steve Englehart started his Detective run, he quickly settled on a fascist, macho narration style to describe Batman and his male perfection. When Hugo Strange showed up and proved to be just as cut, the two men complimented each other’s physiques and prowesses, with Strange’s evil assistant lady making fun of them. At the… 📖
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Resident Alien (2019) s02e15 – Best of Enemies
There’s only one more episode this season, so I guess some of the subplot resolutions make more sense now. For some reason, I thought there were two more episodes. This episode does Capricorn for the first time, and it’s rather disappointing. One of the season’s subplots turns out to just be busywork for a couple… 📖
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Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s02e06 – The Machine
The Machine is the best episode of the season so far, which is no small feat, and one of the three best “Kevin” episodes overall. It’s phenomenal; Kate Loveless and Jasmyne Peck have the writing credit; Anna Dokoza, of course, directs. The episode runs long, around forty-five minutes, and saves most of lead Annie Murphy’s… 📖
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The Lion & the Eagle (2022) #4
First things first: writer Garth Ennis does, as usual, get some tears from me. Lion & the Eagle #4 isn’t what I’d expected, for better and worse, but the inevitable Ennis war comic cry arrives; very last minute this time; I’d been expecting the issue to be a constant tearjerker. Ennis purposefully avoids the consistent… 📖
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Infinity 8: Volume Three: The Gospel According to Emma (2017)
In theory, Infinity 8 is going to get exponentially more complicated as it progresses. With the conclusion of this volume, The Gospel According to Emma, the reader and the Infinity 8’s captain know almost nothing more about the solar system-sized space mausoleum the ship’s investigating. It’s not the captain’s fault, of course; like always, he… 📖
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Werewolf by Night (1972) #19
The Gil Kane, Tom Palmer, and probably John Romita cover sells this issue as Wolfman Jack versus vampires on the moon. But the interior art isn’t Kane, Palmer, or Romita; it’s Don Perlin and Vince Colletta. Wolfman Jack versus the vampires is actually on a movie set, tying into a Dracula Lives story about a… 📖
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Liza with a Z (1972, Bob Fosse)
“Liza with a Z” closes with a Cabaret medley, including Liza Minnelli playing the Emcee for a couple songs. She starts in the audience, a la the “Cabaret” Broadway revival (only twenty-six years before), and quickly works her way onto the stage, joined by dancers, and does a whirlwind ten-minute set. The opening titles tell… 📖
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Scene of the Crime (1999) #2
I was going to say all writer Ed Brubaker needed to do to completely tie together all the San Francisco crime eras was a grandfather in a wheelchair in a greenhouse, but Big Sleep’s L.A. Scene of the Crime is all San Francisco, all the time; Brubaker knows what he’s doing too. This issue introduces… 📖
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Dracula Lives (1973) #12
No mention of Dracula Lives!’s forthcoming cancellation in the letters page, nor any explanation for the Bram Stoker’s Dracula adaptation skipping a month. Instead, the issue seems committed to origin stories; how Bram Stoker’s Dracula became the Marvel Universe’s Dracula. Or, in the case of Doug Moench’s three-part feature, how Marvel’s Dracula became Bram Stoker’s… 📖
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The Trial (1962, Orson Welles)
Given how much writer, director, and special guest star Welles cares about performances—not only does he dub over one of the other actors, he steals a juicy monologue from Michael Lonsdale—one would think he’d have seen the problem with star Anthony Perkins. Because everyone’s looping their dialogue in The Trial, Perkins gave this performance at… 📖
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X Isle (2006) #5
X Isle ends worse than expected. The screenplay or treatment adaptation got to the point where the original writer was hoping the director would love to do an Aliens but robots sequence. Instead, in the comic medium, it goes from discovering the evil robots with tentacles who are actually just doing their job (zookeeping) to… 📖
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She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e04 – Is This Not Real Magic?
This episode down-shifts the action a little, leveraging returning guest star Benedict Wong—who star Tatiana Maslany frequently breaks the fourth wall to comment on appearing—without moving any of the subplots forward. Other than Mark Linn-Baker’s too understated sitcom dad in the real world bit. He shows up for a scene to Wrecking Crew-proof Maslany’s apartment… 📖
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My Life Is Murder (2019) s03e03 – Bloodlines
Since “My Life is Murder” started as a relatively straight Melbourne-based mystery procedural, I don’t know if they would’ve done a horseback riding episode first season. I don’t think they did one last season. But they have so much fun with it this time; I imagine it has to be because star and executive producer… 📖
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All Creatures Great and Small (2020) s03e01 – Second Time Lucky
Last season’s Christmas special ended with World War II getting started (or as close as they could get to the war starting without it starting); this season begins with the recruiters in Darrowby, but the vets are exempt from service. It’s a running subplot throughout the episode, initially very gentle, as Nicholas Ralph discovers you… 📖
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Red Room (2021) #4
I don’t know how creator Ed Piskor is going to keep it up with Red Room. Sure, he’s doing four issue volumes, but does he have an overall plan? I suppose I could’ve read the back matter. Because, as usual, Piskor finds an entirely new way to slice the comic, this time following the story… 📖
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Beware the Creeper (2003) #2
Now, here’s the great Cliff Chiang art I remember on **Beware the Creeper**. He maintains quality with faces while still doing all the great Parisian street scenes. He’s got a lovely sequence with a girl, apparently living on the street, waking up and starting her day. It’s charming, which **Creeper** can often be, when writer… 📖
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Resident Alien (2021) s02e14 – Cat and Mouse
“Resident Alien”’s been leaning on the soundtrack a lot this half-season. Usually, it’s too much country country rock, but this episode’s got some great songs, used to excellent effect. It’s like someone didn’t like how they were doing it and fixed it. Thank goodness. There are only a couple more episodes this season, so it… 📖
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Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977) #254
One of the disappointing but reliable experiences of reading Joe Staton’s Legion of Super-Heroes has been the panels where his art seems to be improving but then doesn’t. In this issue, the same thing happened, and I reminded myself of the phenomenon. First, the art would seem reasonable, then go disastrously wrong. Even with Dave… 📖
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Giant-Size Chillers (1974) #1
I don’t think I lost anything not reading the resurrectrion of Lilith in order. I missed out on some of the gimmick: Lilith is cursed with vampirism, not a natural vampire. She and her dad, Dracula, go to a rugby game because Lilith likes watching sports and she reminds him of her origin story. She… 📖
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Detective Comics (1937) #477
Despite my youthful indiscretions in reading the famed Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers, I had no idea what came after it. Turns out neither did DC at the time, since this issue’s got Len Wein, Rogers, and new inker Dick Giordano doing three new pages around a reprint from 1971. Batman and Commissioner Gordon go… 📖
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Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949, Robert Hamer)
I don’t think I’ve ever referred to a performance as delicious before. I haven’t on The Stop Button (if Google is to be believed), but I’m also pretty sure I’ve never said that phrase before. Delicious performance. Dennis Price gives a delicious performance in Kind Hearts and Coronets. He narrates almost the entire film; there’s… 📖
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The Lion & the Eagle (2022) #3
I haven’t been betting against Lion & the Eagle. The first issue assuaged any Aftershock fears I was having after writer Garth Ennis’s horror comic for the company. The second issue was excellent. I fully intended to be Ennis war comic weeping the next and final issue. But I wasn’t expecting Ennis to do anything… 📖
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Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s02e05 – The Unreliable Narrator
Since Covid-19 doesn’t exist in either of “Kevin”’s universes, I forget this season is their Rona season, and it might have affected how they plotted the season. Because even though last episode had a surprise party gone wrong plot, I also forgot “Kevin” sometimes does sitcom tropes in their “sitcom” part of the episode. The… 📖
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Werewolf by Night (1972) #18
I really haven’t been reading the creator credits well enough. First, I thought this issue was Doug Moench writing; it’s Mike Friedrich. Second, I thought it was Don Perlin’s first issue as full artist (penciler and inker), but he had that role last time. Third, he’s got an inker: Mike Royer. I blame the Don… 📖
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Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s02e04 – Jesus, Allison
There are three big swings in this episode. Two are significant but subtle; one is not subtle at all. The first involves Annie Murphy and Candice Coke. They’re teaming up for the day to put together a party for Mary Hollis Inboden’s birthday, which no one knew about until the day before. Murphy and Coke… 📖
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She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e03 – The People vs. Emil Blonsky
I’m pretty sure this episode of “She-Hulk” is the first time the MCU has acknowledged white males aged eighteen to thirty-four are entirely pieces of shit. There’s a bit with the news showing Twitter posts complaining about She-Hulk, then the MCU version of the Wrecking Crew is a bunch of Trump voters who’ve decided to… 📖
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Scene of the Crime (1999) #1
In the twenty years since Scene of the Crime came out (and I last read it), a couple things have become more clear. First, protagonist and narrator Jack is a bit of a narcissist, and the reason he’s loveless is because he was a lousy, possessive boyfriend. The way he talks about the female characters… 📖
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My Life Is Murder (2019) s03e02 – Nothing Concrete
This episode’s a mad-libs of murder mysteries; the victim’s found in a statue, one of the suspects is a billionaire tech jackass, and there’s an environmental angle in addition to a jealousy one. None of those items listed actually have anything to do with the actual motive. I forgot why the killer did the deed.… 📖
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Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s02e03 – Ghost
I didn’t understand what Eric Petersen was saying when he says, “Pal-o-ween;” I thought he meant Halloween, and then the dialogue implied he thought every month with a thirty-first meant that day was Halloween. I figured out what had happened quickly, but it was strange because it wouldn’t not fit the show. Petersen’s regular but… 📖
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Dracula Lives (1973) #11
I had planned on opening bemoaning Dracula Lives only having two issues left just when the series has found itself again, but then I did some research and discovered it’s worse than the series just canceling. They’re not going to finish the Bram Stoker’s Dracula adaptation here; there’s no more Lilith (more on her adventures… 📖
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Resident Alien (2021) s02e13 – Harry, a Parent
If “Resident Alien” keeps bringing Sarah Podemski back as a regular recurring, she needs to have some kind of name credit. Podemski plays Kayla, one of Sara Tommy’s cousins (or not); regardless, they’re both Native and interested in historical and cultural preservation, which is why Podemski’s important to Meredith Garretson’s new subplot. She and husband… 📖