Graphic Novel Review - Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Two by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, & John Totleben

Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Two

Swamp Thing has been around for as long as I can remember - I used to own a comic in the '90s where Swamp Thing and this other lady were having some sweet loving. It wasn't any of the issues out of this collection, but I'm pretty sure it was an Alan Moore story, so the memory isn't totally out of context. Anyway, Vertigo's reissue of Alan Moore's seminal story is collected in a nice hardcover volume that, for this book, includes issues 28 - 34 of the series.

I never realized how fantastic Swamp Thing really was until I read this edition. No prior knowledge of the series is required to pick up this volume - Moore does a great job of telling the story without forcing the reader to follow each issue. The plot is easy to pick up on, and the books are broken up well enough that they don't leave with cliffhangers.

Moore's writing is wonderful, a poetic prose form, using enviable metaphor that adds to the beautiful visuals that Bissette and Totleban designed. Swamp Thing is easy to feel for; he may look like a monster but his personality shines like the sun. His friend Abby is equally as friendly and fresh, and there's even a wonderful moment where the two join together intimately to become one plant-human concoction of LSD-like hypnosis.

But I digress - I'm not here to talk about Moore's work on Swamp Thing, but the actual reissue itself. DC Comics has left the paper comic pages intact, which some may disagree with but a decision that I love. Comics have dropped using the paper pages and resorted to glossy ones. They feel nice, yes, and there's less of a chance for papercuts, but I like how Swamp Thing takes us back in time to comics of old. The paper gives a nostalgic feel, bringing me back to days where I used to sit up in my aunt's closet and read old horror comics.

The hardcover binding comes with a slipcover with fantastic cover art. There's not too much in the way of added extras; we get an introduction from Jamie Delano, a foreword by Neil Gaiman, and some author bios at the back of the book. Even if you do have the issues, though, it's nice to have them all in one place.

Otherwise, though, this collection of Swamp Thing is a must-have for fans of the series, or for those who have never read the series. Ecological crises are a hot topic right now, and one that the world can not forget about. Swamp Thing is a character that not only upholds this idea that the earth is connected to humanity, but he is our savior as well - we must accept the fact that we need Earth to survive, something that we tend to forget in the face of our own daily needs. This reissue of Saga of the Swamp Thing is coming at a much-needed time; I cannot ictuate enough how moving the story really is.

Ictuate is my lost word of the day.

Moon Minis - Choke

Choke

Film adaptation of a Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) novel (I can't say his name) about a man, Victor (Sam Rockwell) "attempting" to shake a sex addiction while dealing with his mother's recent illness. Victor's not so much a likable character as he is an interesting one, and director/screenwriter Clark Gregg has done a decent job at detailing Victor's out-of-control lifestyle and coupling that with seemingly normal people. Unfortunately, the shocks at the end coming from Victor's mother's nurse aren't as surprising as the movie would like us to believe considering her faulty ideas prior to the conclusion, and the emotions generated between mother and son are limited given that they both have a love/hate relationship leaning more towards the hate spectrum. There's also a question as to where the film is headed through much of the plot, which is fortunately wrapped up toward the end of the film and all themes are brought together. There are a few very effective devices used, one being the fact that Victor sees all women in flashes of who he has had sex with or what they look like naked. It is enjoyable characterization that really works with the film's topic. Choke has its moments but falls short of an emotional release, though the finale does well to provide a commentary on addiction. How true it is, though, I'm not one to judge.

Choke on Rotten Tomatoes

Mad dash

I've been slightly (meaning unbelievably) swamped with homework lately, so I have had no time to do anything other than that and watch Choke last night. Hopefully I'll have a Moon Mini of that up tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise, I'm still attempting to finish Saga of the Swamp Thing, though it's slow going because I have to read the Book of Jeremiah from the Bible before I can read anything else (Bible class, 15-page research paper on Job/Jeremiah suffering).

I'm trying.

Book Review - Intervention by Robin Cook

Intervention

I've only read one Robin Cook book besides this one, but I was impressed by his ability to write a gripping thriller that combined the medical world as well, two ideas that sound great but, when mashed together, can end up bogged down with medical mumbo-jumbo and off-kilter pacing. Intervention is very loosely tied to the medical world, however, and I couldn't help feeling a Dan Brown influence throughout the entirety of the novel.

Intervention can be considered a quest story of sorts; this time, the quest item is not the Holy Grail but the ossuary that contains what the characters of the story believe are the bones of the Virgin Mary. Cook is definitely caught up on the religious spin in the novel, but he does tackle some other themes about the medical world as well. But this tendency to pin too many themes to one story is what generates the big problem for Intervention.

Cook's protagonist is Jack Stapleton, a recurring character from some of his older novels. Some of Jack's friends, Shawn and his wife Sana, have unearthed the ossuary of what appears to be the Virgin Mary, and, both being in two fields of study that will be directly affected by this find, proceed to uncover both the evidence to support the Virgin Mary claim and DNA that would uncover a matrilineal link to Mary in the contemporary world. But Jack's other friend, James, is an archbishop, a guy who would really suffer if word got out the Mary's bones had been found and that she had not divinely ascended into Heaven. So James and Shawn butt heads about the whole matter, and James sends a Virgin Mary fanatic into Shawn's house to influence him not to release his evidence. And somehow, Jack manages to find himself caught up in all of this, plus deal with his sick 4-month-old.

The plot sounds a bit confusing, and the references to Gnosticism and the Bible can be frustrating if one isn't up on their religious knowledge. But the plot is explained clearly enough, and often enough, to allow for the reader to get the gist of what's going on and why it's bad. Once one has been given the run-down of the Virgin Mary dilemma, the plot becomes quite intricate and interesting. It's the intervals in-between that make for a muddled read.

The first half of the book is fairly misleading. Jack begins to focus on his fieldwork about the dangers of alternative medicine, like chiropractic, which ultimately leads... no where. One can argue that towards the end of the novel, there's a frail tether between the religious aspect and faith healing, but to be honest, the two are barely connected. It feels like a waste to be given so much information on chiropractic, following Jack's informational trail and getting sucked into the topic, for it to just be dropped in the middle of the book for something more permanent. It feels as though Cook is trying to tap into some very pertinent themes, but there are just too many. They just can't be tackled all at once.

Unfortunately, the religious aspect of the plot becomes significantly less arousing after the ossuary has been dug up; the plot is reduced to a "thriller" where Shawn and Sana are wiped out by a religious fanatic with little to no emotional buildup and an even smaller emotional release from Jack. The characters are incredibly unbelievable; Jack is constantly leaving his sick baby and his taxed wife to go play a game of hoops, or skedaddling out of the house early in the morning to get in a couple more hours of work so that he doesn't have to be with the baby. Shawn and Sana bicker more than siblings, and that gets annoying all too quickly. James does not feel like an archbishop in the slightest. Their reactions are even more improbable. James and Jack are quick to get over their old friend's death; they are barely phased, moving on to more "pressing" matters! Jack blows up at people over the silliest of instances; twice he gets angry at people because they have had some sort of alternative medicine once in a while. This man needs some anger management counseling! The dialogue is off as well; everyone seems too nice, too sophisticated in speech. It seems these people don't use slang, or even contractions, when they talk.

A huge detractor is that the plot is wrapped up too quickly. Come on, I've read 350 pages of this book about the Virgin Mary; I do NOT want the conflict resolved by a quick house fire in two pages. The pacing, especially towards the end, is so inconsistent that the conclusion is probably one of the most disappointing features of the book. In the end, not much happens - everything is restored to order, a couple people died in the process, but so what? A baby is cured of cancer - maybe.

This is Robin Cook's 29th book. But it doesn't feel like he's learned a whole lot about the craft of writing in those other 28 novels. Why are the characters so unbelievable? What's with the dialogue? What happened to sticking to one point of view (Jack's)? There are just too many mistakes here to deny; the themes might be edgy, but the book can't sustain any intensity to give them any weight.

No posts!

I realize that I haven't been posting in a while - I promise I'm not dead, just bombarded with work. I did receive a review item, a collection of Swamp Thing comics from DC Comics, but I'm also looking for more (yes, even with all of the work I have to do - I'm a glutton for punishment). I don't exactly have a whole lot to review right now; Netflix is a little behind because of the holiday and the next film won't be horror-related anyway, a total bummer. I'm almost finished with a book I'll be reviewing soon, though - it's Robin Cook's Intervention.

Stay tuned!

Bloody-Disgusting has first look of Roth-produced Cotton; feels soft

Bloody-Disgusting recently posted a few pictures of Eli Roth's (Hostel, Cabin Fever) new production, Cotton. The details were unveiled at the American Film Market, and a trailer was even glimpsed by B-D. Cotton is being directed by Daniel Stamm (A Necessary Death) and is billed as a cross between The Exorcist and Cloverfield.

I don't know about everyone else, but I am significantly stoic on this film. I enjoy most of Roth's output (Hostel II being the exception), and though I've never seen A Necessary Death, I've heard good things. The pictures B-D posted look pretty nice as well, and it seems as though the Roth and Stamm are going for the creepy contortions of possessed people that make people squirm. But I'm not buying the originality of the film's premise here - we're already being bombarded with documentary-style films, what with Paranormal Activity recently hitting the screen, The Fourth Kind releasing this weekend, and REC2 on its way soon.

Only time will tell, but first impressions of Cotton - a moderately successful flick with minor scares and shaky camerawork that will extend the fascination with documentary horror but will fail to please anyone looking for something more original. Don't quote me, though.

Overall, I'm feeling very let down by most, if not all, of the upcoming horror releases, with most being remakes, sequels, or vampire movies (ugh). The most I'm looking forward to is the new NOES remake, and even that is just out of curiousity as to whether it will suck as bad as I think it will. How do you feel about the state of horror?

Thanks to Bloody-Disgusting for news and pictures.

Movie Review - Mr. Halloween

Mr. Halloween

Should I really call this a movie, or just categorize it under "high school tech project?" It's a question I'm still dealing with as I write this. I picked some real winners for my Netflix Halloween viewing, that's for sure. First Halloween Night, and now Mr. Halloween - I thought it couldn't get any worse! Alas, I was wrong, and Mr. Halloween has proven to me that Netflix is populated with really good movies, some big-budget and some low, but when a rating has one and a half stars, it's for a reason.

I mentioned that this seemed like a high school film project. I wasn't joking. Mr. Halloween is shot with the lowest of low budgets: mainly with a rented camera that gives everything a nice "hey-Mom-I-made-a-home-movie" feel, and when I say nice, I mean absolute shit. One feels like director Andrew Wolf was trying to be artsy with his choice of camera shots; he films ashtrays when a character is getting killed, strategically positions cameras behind a tree so we get a very limited shot of what's supposed to be happening, and generally just shoots things from positions that aren't used in big-budget movie-making for a reason. Yes, even though the shot of the ash tray might have been effective in a different context, in Mr. Halloween we are forced to watch smoke waft from a lit cigarette in the ashtray for five minutes while a number of off-screen events happen, and based on the unflinching way the camera presents violence to us during other death scenes, there's absolutely no reason for looking away.

The script ain't much better, either. The characters are probably the dumbest, most asinine people on the planet, and it's no wonder that a) the killer has targeted this town in small-town America because the citizens can't solve a widespread kidnapping spree and b) all of the teenagers are being killed off because of their absolute lack of skill in both common sense, knowledge, or even public affairs. That's right - the main characters, though it may not seem like it in the film, are the awkwardest kids ever: we've got who I've termed "doofy mustache guy," who can't break his way out of a boarded up shack with a bunch of tools in it; a proclaimed "hot" girl who needs Captain Obvious as a sidekick since she has to ask questions about things that are painfully observable; and a kid who has been chained in a basement for a year and yet has still managed to grow his bangs out to the side without them being cut, and who has also turned into a pervert who would rather discuss love lives than find a way out. Suffice to say, none of these characters will ever be Homecoming king or queen, and they sure as hell don't carry the movie.

So we've sat through bad camera work and even worse characters, but how is the plot, dialogue, and violence, you ask? Equally as terrible. Dialogue is limited to awkward conversations exploring obvious facets of the film, mostly dealing with irrelevant subjects. The plot is never really explained, other than the fact that Mr. Halloween is a dude who kills teens for their bodies in his haunted house and for some type of sustenance (?questionable?). Plus, the movie runs for an egregious hour and fifty minutes, so unnecessary for the amount of drama and action in the film that the filmmakers should be thanking me for putting up with their movie for that long. Most of film is dedicated to Mr. Halloween, an Edgar Allen Poe look-alike, killing helpless teens and growling like a man with Tourrete's. By the halfway point, it feels like the film should be over because it's just not going anywhere.

Unfortunately, it's not, and after suffering through the last half, I came to the worst conclusion in the history of conclusions, with a "highly" climactic fight scene with Mr. Halloween where he just will. not. die. He gets up from fatal blows at least three times, and one gets one's hopes up that this will be the end of the film until Mr. Halloween keeps coming back for "thrills!" It's a total joy-killer.

To sum this atrocity up into one concise statement, my favorite scene was the credits. Stay far, far, far away from this film. And remember: low-budget does not mean the script has to seem like it was written by two six-year-olds collaborating at the elementary school cafeteria.

PS: I should also mention that the cover art is highly misleading - there's no evil-looking clown or little girl in this film.

Suggestions?

Now that Halloween has passed, I'm looking for suggestions/review items as to what you'd like to see covered. Right now, I'm working on some items for review, and I have a few news items I have neglected to post (if you sent something my way, I'm sorry if it didn't get noticed - I've been very busy), but I'm also in the mood for doing something for the audience I have.

What would you like to see?

Hopefully, a couple news items coming soon.

Manga Review - Ogre Hunting by Toshio Maeda

Ogre Hunting


I've been flying through horror manga lately, and my search has led me to Toshio Maeda's work with Ogre Hunting. Yes, this is the same man who brought the United States such "classic" anime works like La Blue Girl and Urotsukidoji, two series that deal with the sexual side of monsters. But Ogre Hunting is not as focused on nudity and porn as Maeda's other works, and at least there's more action here than anything else.

The title clearly defines what this manga is all about - a man hunts an ogre who has been summoned to kill a young woman. It's pretty simple, really, and throughout the 80 or so pages of the story, Maeda never really fleshes out the storyline any more than this. While it lets the reader jump right in without being bogged down by exposition, it also doesn't require a whole lot of thought while reading. One can breeze through this single volume in under 15 minutes as it consists more of action-sequenced drawings than much dialogue.

Obviously, with little dialogue, there's also not much room to develop character. I think we get more personality from the ogre than we do from anyone else. At least the ogre and the hero have motivations; the woman being targeted is a very weak character who can do nothing but run. In the audience's eyes, there's not much to root for here - it's not really a question of whether the hero will win or not, because we're already told that he is the famed ogre hunter, and though it is up in the air whether the girl will survive, it doesn't really matter at this point.

I'm also not a huge fan of Maeda's art style here. Some of the drawings are a bit muddled and it becomes hard to understand what exactly is going on in each panel. The action is good when we get a large focus on it. But when Maeda draws small but concise panels, everything gets blurry. The ogre is gruesome, but not as much so as other monsters he has drawn.

We must keep in mind, though, that Ogre Hunting is probably not meant to be applauded for its story; it is, more likely, a hero story meant as a fantasy for men, a tweaking of the knight-in-shining-armor motif. This it does well, though little else. It's fine while it lasts, but one will most likely not take up the hunt again, or even remember it after it's finished.

Manga Review - Lovesick Dead by Junji Ito

Lovesick Dead

Continuing my fascination with all things done by Junji ito is Lovesick Dead, or Undying Love as it is sometimes called. The story is a short, one-volume affair dealing with a teen who moves back to his foggy old Japanese town and finds that the inhabitants are obsessed with playing a game called "intersection fortune-telling." The game involves waiting at an intersection until someone passes by, and then asking the person a question where they can predict your future. It's supposed to be a spontaneous thing; you just say whatever comes to your mind. But a pretty boy has been seen walking along the intersections, saying terrible things to everyone who asks their fortune, and they generally end up killing themselves or messing up their life in some way.

Ito's reliance on human obsession is again seen in this manga, but it's a really original premise that continues to twist until the end. There are only four chapters, and they divide the manga into quarters. The first is the introduction of intersection fortune-telling and the pretty boy, which is grotesque and disturbing and gets the ball rolling with the themes of fascination. Every individual of the foggy town is somehow influenced very easily, except our protagonist Ryuusuke, who is thrown off by the similarities between the events of the present and a past experience. Ryuusuke is involved with one of his classmates, but is haunted by the fact that he feels like he killed her aunt in a chance encounter of intersection fortune-telling that ended in suicide.

Lovesick Dead continues to escalate with the ghosts of the suicide victims and weird encounters with obsessive girls who think Ryuusuke is the actual pretty boy. Toward the end of the manga, Ryuusuke is forced to find the pretty boy himself, and becomes addicted to it in that regard as well. Ito's art is terrifying, and the ghosts are drawn with such violent hatred that it creeps out the reader. Ito is very good at showing the dementia of the character through expression, and it comes through here as well.

The obsession of the town escalates, and it's really hard to trust anyone within the manga. This is a good thing - it leaves the reader hanging on, but with no ideas as to where the manga might be headed. However, the conclusion is a bit lackluster and anti-climactic. Ito's writing style is generally like this, though - he starts off with a very twisted idea, branches off of it with more intricate and complex storylines, and then finds he can't conclude them well. But this is alright for me - I'd rather Ito focus on the psychologies of fascination than have an unoriginal plot with a very succinct ending.

If you liked Uzumaki, you will most likely love this short volume. Where Uzumaki deals with obsession of a town, Lovesick Dead tends to look at people more individually and follow their breakdown to its end. Though its ending leaves something to be desired, Ito gives us more than enough eerie moments and interesting plot developments to keep us avidly reading until the grim end.