Friday, May 17, 2024
Thursday, May 16, 2024
SO LONG, DON PERLIN
You penciled a number of subjects quite well, but your misunderstood monsters and twisted mystics always pleased best, for they projected ferocity, sympathy and downtrodden majesty, all within the most intricate landscapes.
The accursed Jack Russell of Werewolf by Night is one such conspicuous example of your amazing artfulness, but there's also Ghost Rider, Frankenstein's Monster, Man-Thing, the Heap, the Hulk and that mighty, otherworldly crusader you came to co-create, Moon Knight.
You worked on Marvel's legendary, mainstream protagonists, as well, including Captain America, The Falcon, Spider-man, Doctor Strange, Thor, Sub-mariner, the Transformers, the Inhumans, the Defenders ... Alpha Flight, plus you earned award-winning praise for the speculative What If?
Later down the line, you leapt from Marvel to Valiant and invested your talents in Bloodshot (another classy co-creation); Dr. Solar: Man of the Atom, Eternal Warrior, Bad Eggs and Timewalker; and let's not overlook your contributions to DC's Unexpected and Scooby-Doo; Classics Illustrated/Jules Verne's Robur the Conqueror; American Comic Books/Will Eisner's The Spirit; Youthful Magazine's Captain Science; Dell's Hogan's Heroes; the Western Winners series; Charlton's Fightin' Army; and a respectable stint on the practical and patriotic PS: The Preventive Maintenance Monthly Magazine.
You displayed maturity in your renderings, which children embraced, and among adults, you sparked childlike wonder. You're a generational icon in this respect, Mr. Perlin, a high-caliber master who summoned heroism through peril and hope through aversity: astounding achievements if ever there were.
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE RISES AGAIN
In all honesty, I anticipated the entirety of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire to be covered by AMC within one season, and yet, lo and behold, we get a second.
The follow-up, like the initial stretch, continues a revisionist view on the novel, making its implied homosexuality an unpretentious constant. I've no objections to that, beyond the fact that the vampires' love for comely (sparkly) things (a pre-Twilight type of glimmer) made them more ethereal and therefore, a breed apart from mortal humanity. The defined, sexual orientation of the vampires in the AMC series makes them much more human, and as such, more brutal when it comes to their kills. This, in particular, impacts Jacob Anderson's Louis, who doesn't act as sympathetic as he does in the text or for that matter, in Neil Jordan's 1994 blockbuster, in the guise of Brad Pitt.
Such sensitivity (the guilt that accompanies ravenous feeding) comprises a HUGE part of Rice's saga, enough that it gets unjust credit for starting the trend. However, those in-the-vampire-know realize that Jonathan Frid's Barnabas Collins and William Marshall's Prince Mamuwalde initiated and perpetuated the sorrowful gist, with Paul Naschy nudging the notion in Count Dracula's Great Love and Michael Nouri's Count eventually elevating it to yet a whole other level in the Cliffhanger serial, "The Curse of Dracula" (aka The World of Dracula, in abbreviated, movie form).
As it stands (based, that is, on Season 2's first episode, "What Can the Damned Really Say to the Damned?"), the new Interview presses the redesign all the deeper, being evermore ferocious throughout its WWII flashback. (For one, Delainey Hayes' conniving Claudia seems to ingrain this much more than Baily Bass' version had.) Such distinction became most apparent when the opening offered an atmospheric explanation of how diverse tiers of vampires exist, just as Rice depicted in her book. (And for the fun of it, one can only presume that if there are different categories of vampires out there--some gnarly, some pretty--the same would go for werewolves, though I suppose the Howling sequels more than conveyed this, albeit more by chance than plan.)
As it stands, I've no idea where Season 2 will land in its aesthetics, or how it might impact a Vampire Lestat series, if there's ever to be one, for only time will determine any and all retooled outcomes, as Interview's insightful bloodsuckers should damn well know.
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
FEMFORCE #203: FEAR THE QUEEN IN YELLOW
AC's all-color Femforce #203 presents several compelling avenues for our team, as its members face the quarrelsome Queen in Yellow, who's taken possession of Nightveil's beguiling Cloak of Darkness.
The conundrum sets Femforce to dino-based Taragonia and ultimately to the perplexing Dark Dhagor for a dangerous, dimensional-rocking confrontation.
Issue #203 also features a dreamy, Nightveil interlude, where our lovely mystic rescues Kamalfa from a woeful, environmental station, just as the Black Commando falls to insanity.
The riveting contents spring from contributors Bill Black, Eric Coile, Jeff Austin, and Mark and Stephanie Heike, who keep readers on the edge of their seats and begging for more with their striking visuals and stupendous storytelling. No ifs, ands or buts, this issue holds classic relegation, but then, doesn't every entry in the dazzling series?
Femforce #203 is available here and now through online venues and neighborhood, comic shops. I purchased mine through Steve's Comic Relief at Village Commons, on Quakerbridge Road, Lawrenceville, NJ: a superb hub for all superheroic cravings.
And speaking of cravings, I can't wait for Femforce #204. That suggestive, Tara-vs-snake cover has sure gotten my pulse racing. S-s-schwing!!!
Monday, May 13, 2024
THE THING 1951: A CLASSIC MONSTERS OF THE MOVIES TRIBUTE
Thirty years before the arrival of John Carpenter's film adaptation of John W. Campbell's claustrophobic, creep-fest, Who Goes There?, producer Howard Hawks and director Christian Nyby brought The Thing From Another World to the big screen.
The 1951 chiller was adapted by Charles Lederer, Ben Hecht and Hawks, who presented one of cinema's most memorable ensembles: Kenneth (The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms/It Came From Beneath the Sea/The Vampire) Tobey; Margaret (I, the Jury) Sheridan; Paul (The War of the Worlds) Frees; Robert (The War of the Worlds) Cornthwaite; John (The Naked Jungle) Dierkes; Douglas (This Island Earth) Spencer; Robert (This Island Earth) Nichols; Eduard (The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake) Franz; Everett (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) Glass; Dewey (Land of the Pharaohs) Martin; George (You Bet Your Life) Fenneman; Sally (Has Anybody Seen My Gal?) Creighton; and as the regenerating, vegetable menace from beyond, a pre-Gunsmoke James Arness.
Authors/researchers Nige Burton and Jamie Jones now commemorate this jolting masterpiece with a deluxe, special edition for Classic Monsters of the Movies, inserting respectful and thorough bios for the aforementioned, while discussing the actors' snappy, intersecting dialogue; first-time director Nyby's admirable adherence to Hawks' filmmaking style; and a comparison of Campbell's work to the adaptation's non-shapeshifting elements. That's right, folks, it's all contained for your edification, from startling start to forbidding finish.
As with other Classic Monsters Ultimate Guides, The Thing is sweetened by eye-opening trivia, "Quotable Quotes" and quality, promotional pieces, angled to please fans of this nail-biting, speculative staple.
This one seems destined to deplete, so be wise and order before The Thing evades your grasp.
https://www.classic-monsters.com/shop/product/the-thing-from-another-world-1951-ultimate-guide-magazine/
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