LARRY JOHNSON'S THE COMPLETE LEW BROWN

I think of Lew Brown as the alter ego of the artist/writer Larry Johnson. Lew (who's been featured in Johnson's Tales of Fantasy and the novel, The Hand) is a man (a reporter) who finds himself in the most extraordinary places, meeting the most extraordinary individuals, with each path steered by Johnson's venturesome imagination. In other words, Lew sees through Johnson's mindful eyes, and I believe it's safe to say that he reacts to situations just as his creator would. 

In the black-and-white, 187-page The Complete Lew Brown (Vol 1), Johnson offers a satisfying smorgasbord of his counterpart's 1984-1993, comic-strip exploits. The stories feature a Harryhausen-ish skeleton; a jarring tryst with a bird man; a magical, aboriginal reverie; a hypnotic visit to "paradise"; a sojourn to a static-laden dimension; a wrestling match with the exotic Eltaur; a matter of fortune-telling and possession with the conniving Madame Boogala; a time-traveling trip spurred by Lew's neighbors, Joe and Francine Carbone; the fiendish fate of a bicycle thief; a fictional monster made real; Joe's "image rectifier" and the seductive gorgon it summons; Joe turning Lew invisible; the emulating antics of Joe's robot butler, Ambro; the mystical effects of Francine's memory-inducing tear-drop gem; Lew's crazy crossover with Space Cat; and last but not least, Boogala's bold return for the collection's metamorphic epilogue.    

As one can infer, Johnson gives readers much to absorb in The Complete Lew Brown, and the brief descriptions above don't convey the vast intricacies that each story holds. Nonetheless, Brown's sojourns would please any fan of The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Amazing Stories and One Step Beyond, where commoners slip into uncommon situations.

On second thought, perhaps it's a tad inaccurate to categorize Lew as common. In fact, Johnson makes his reflected self an "everyman" conduit for the outlandish, though in such a way that his bizarre scenarios feel credible. Perhaps that's why these fantastic tales work so well. Yes, they're phantasmagoric, but at their core, they emblemize the familiar highs and lows of any visionary life. (BTW: Johnson ruminates on Lew's genesis in the volume's pensive preface.)

There's no question that Johnson's fictional confidant has become one of my favorites. I believe that if you give The Complete Lew Brown a whirl, he'll become one of yours, too.

The Complete Lew Brown (Vol 1) can (and should) be purchased at

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GXTLP6HM?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title   

PINUP TIME: RAQUEL WELCH

 

I SAW THE BOYS: SEASON 5

 

It's been a long run, sometimes enthralling, more often than not unnerving, but for better or worse, The Boys has come to a close, or so that's the declaration. (As one knows, franchises never die. They just get revived. Give this one time. It'll resurface in some form or another, even beyond a Gen V sequel or the anticipated, Soldier Boy/Bombsight/Stormfront-led, Vought Rising prequel. Say, maybe Homelander will be resurrected and seek revenge. Well, it's not out of the realm of possibility.) 

Anyhow, this "final" season didn't strike me as repugnant as the others. I'm grateful for that. (I'm still distressed by that revolting, Hughie Campbell/Webweaver, cake display in "Dirty Business," and as for Homelander's "One More Pallbearer"/Fudgie the Whale escapade in "Wisdom of the Ages," well, it remains the irrevocable stuff of nightmares.) 

This season struck me as more comedic than previous ones, with its humor more unpretentious and surface-level, as when the Deep had his big, "Fredo" moment and Noir II auditioned as Barry Gibb for an off-Broadway, Bee Gees play. 

However, most of the guffaws came from the buddy-movie tropes. The banter between Homelander and Soldier Boy (father and son, no less) sealed such (and was a major highlight, in fact), even as it continued to insert traces of lewdness: in this season's case, their shared flings with Firecracker and Soldier Boy's cringy, Shari Lewis fixation. 

I did enjoy Paul Reiser's the Legend and liked him more than I realized, enough so that the reputed, Stan Lee-inspired, fast talker made "Though the Heavens Fall" my favorite chapter of the series. Wish there had been more of him in the series. Ah, well, it is what it is. 

But that's the damn thing. The Boys tended to tease a lot, rather like Daredevil: Born Again, Season 2. In other words, it dangled concepts without delivering many payoffs. The series was, in reflection, a string of wise-cracking, gory interludes, underscored by that familiar, Brightburn aim, often rounded off by Ashley Barrett's frantic, duplicitous refrains. Yeah, the dots were connected, but for what cause? 

Maybe the show was trying to say there's no real good or bad in the world, that political parties are all one and the same, nationalism is designed for compliant dummies and ambition, whether among the Supes or the saga's titular troop, is just a means to a self-serving end. For those viewers who felt compelled to identify with (i.e. root for) a faction, it came down to picking the perceived lesser of two evils, if evil (by example or exposition on this show) even exists. In The Boys' ambivalent context, it was damn hard to tell. 

O Father's bling-over-humility sure didn't help much in that regard, but nor did Firecracker, with her misconstrued contradictions. In truth, all of the series' pro-American Holy Rollers were two-faced (and far more than Barrett ever was, ha ha), though none were as extreme as Homelander, who sought validation by becoming the faux Christ of a sanctimonious ruse called the Democratic Church of America. 

Beneath the ethereal glitz, the church was the epitome of despair, filtered through an ironic promise of hope. Perhaps then, this constitutes The Boys' paramount point. Without virtue, hope is a vain pursuit, even among the Boys' members, whether it be Billy Butcher, Hughie, Starlight, Mother's Milk, Frenchie, Kimiko, the "unreal" Joe Kessler (who never did belong), the Johnny-come-lately Sister Sage and the waiting-in-the-wings Marie Moreau. In their broad, magnanimous strand, they were all full of shite (as Butcher would say), and that's a shame. 

Call me naive, perhaps uncool, but I like a dose of optimism in my superhero lore. I prefer the idea that good and bad aren't indivisible. That's because I've seen the evidence. Such cut-and-dry factions do exist, with blaring example upon example emerging time and again, day after day, with enough clashing, philosophical contrasts to make one's head spin. That The Boys dismisses the staggering proof only demonstrates how full of shite the saga is. 

And yet I watched this satirical shite. It held my attention. I wanted to see where it would go, even if I knew I wouldn't like where it went. 

With that said, if I ever get a craving for a superhero fling (and those cravings do strike me a lot), The Boys won't be my prime, revisited pick. I'll likely choose Superman and the Mole Men, Superman: the Movie, Batman '66, Batman '89, Captain America '79, Captain America '90 (either cut), Spider-man '77, Spider-man '02 or perhaps if I'm feeling a trifle moody, I'll work in The Dark Knight or The Watchmen, maybe do a double feature of Logan and The Winter Solider. It's just the way I'm made, and it's clear that The Boys, though a devilish diversion, was never made for me or those who hold my positive, stuffed-shirt perspective. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxEPV4kolz0

WISE WORDS:

 

HAPPY WORLD GOTH DAY 2026 (5/22), FROM LILY

 

SAY U.N.C.L.E.! NAPOLEON SOLO WINS

A horse called Napoleon Solo won the 151st (2026) Preakness Stakes. The news outlets are ballyhooing the outcome for all it's worth, and yet it's baffling to me that few of the media's "omniscient" darlings have referenced the victorious creature's namesake. 

We're talking U.N.C.L.E. here, as in The Man from..., as portrayed by the suave Robert Vaughn and later down the line by the suave Henry Cavill (two actors associated with the Superman movie franchise, no less). Napoleon Solo, the name is pop-cultural royalty for crying out loud! It's a winning name for a winning protagonist and now a top-winning race horse.

Why then the omission? Call me petty, but I think it's infuriating that those in the alleged know either don't know or don't care.😠

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRED (2026), FROM BRO MIKE