Reviews
The Comics Brain Rot: Malignant Man #3
Malignant Man is a 2011 four part, sci-fi mini-series published by Boom! Studios. Written by James Wan (Saw) and Michael Alan Nelson (28 Days Later: The Comic) with art from Piotr Kowalski, it details the struggle of a terminally ill cancer-ridden patient, Alan Gates, who is granted a second lease on life. The tumour is his brain actually turns out to be a mysterious parasitic, alien symbiote called a 'Malignant' which gifts him superhuman powers, both mental and physical.
A Song of Ice and Fire
The pay television-viewing world is abuzz with excitement about the new tele-series Game of Thrones brought to our screens by the wonderful people at the Home Box Office network.
In honour of that viewing offering, I’ve decided to bring to the Dude Rocket a little taste of what goes on in the mind of author George R. R. Martin (‘GRRM’), the creator of A Song of Ice and Fire – the literary inspiration behind the show - to whet their appetites for some tremendous televisual experiences.
Basically what I need to get across to you is that GRRM is dangerously deranged when it comes to sex and that’s all he writes about.
DNA # 110
Yes, that's right, 110 issues! I didn't think Australian music zines got to that many issues. This issue is the 2nd part of a 30th Anniversary Edition, which means the zine started back in 1980.
Now, as I have no prior experience of the zine, I'm finding it hard to work out if it's normally like this or not. Issue 110 is a zine "attempting to document the activity of underground and alternative bands in Adelaide and South Australia from the mid 1970's to the present day". So it's full of retrospective bios on various Adelaide bands, has a 'whatever happened to' section for people wondering what their favourite Adelaide legend is up to, an obits section, etc.
The Comics Brain Rot: Officer Downe
Yet another Joe Casey motherfuckin' masterpiece! The blood soaked, gore-strewn, hard justice delivering, Officer Downe. Officer Downe was a 48 page one-shot published by Image Comics in July of 2010 and is probably the most intentionally hyper-violent comic I have ever read.
Battle: Los Angeles
This is the more expensive aliens-invade-LA film from 2010/2011 (the other being Skyline); a gritty, urban military adventure shot from a grunt's POV. It takes a hackneyed sci-fi concept and heavily leans on Black Hawk Down as source material, and is seemingly also inspired by post-9/11 warfare in Iraq and Afhghanistan to transform familiar American terrain into a wartorn Fallujah City in the space of a few minutes courtesy of some gun-happy aliens.
Hunters of Dune & Sandworms of Dune
Dune is probably my favourite book ever.
It distinguishes itself from lame science fiction through its amazingly complex and detailed setting, which is by far the strongest feature of the novel. I remember reading this book and barely being able to take in the enormity of the plot, but reading it was never a chore despite it sounding like it should be that way. It was very much a case of the book being too good for me to absorb it all easily (me being stupid didn‘t help), and I enjoyed the way that the intricate narrative wasn’t dumbed down for the masses.
The sequels to Dune, while not having quite the same impact as the first book of the series, are all amazing as well.
Super 8
My anticipation for this movie was completely off the scale. There are certain images and sounds and styles that will push everybodies buttons, we call this nostalgia and it's a completely subjective thing, and for me Super 8's trailer did this in a very big way. It called to mind all the great adventure films I grew up on in the 1980s... Explorers, The Goonies, Flight of the Navigator, Gremlins, E.T.; a lot of stuff by guys like Steven Spielberg and Joe Dante. And this is obviously the point behind this film, it's been widely publicised as this kind of experience and the creative team behind it (J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg) have made no secrets about it.
The Comics Brain Rot: Kirby: Genesis #1
Kirby: Genesis is a comic book tribute to what some would say is the original godfather (next to Stan Lee) of the comic book, superhero and sci-fi fantasy genre, the late and great Mr. Jack Kirby. Kirby is the innovative and massively influential co-creator of many, many superhero legends including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Hulk amongst countless others.
The Magician
Imagine if, somehow, you could make a documentary about a hitman where you followed his life as he got amongst it. That's The Magician. It's funny, uncomfortably tense and very wrong (but funny!) Ray (Scott Ryan), a Melbourne 'magician' who makes people disappear, has his everyday life documented by his neighbour, Max (Massimiliano Andrighetto). The whole film crosscuts between several subplots involving Ray and Max's misadventures in an inner-city suburbia populated by petty criminals and junkies, whilst Ray narrates the sordid and mundane realities of his life.
For once, it's nice to see a handheld digicam being used to make something other than low budget horror.
Flashman and the Redskins
The plot of this book follows on from the ending of Flash for Freedom (which I've read, but haven't reviewed for this website) and which details Sir Harry Paget Flashman's forced departure from a comfortable life in England and press-ganged into involvement in the slave trade.
Essentially, that book covers Flashman's reluctant journeys onboard a slaving ship which unsurprisingly runs into trouble which results in Flashman unsurprisingly wriggling his way clear, but finding his feet on the other side of the Atlantic and unable to find his way home to England.
The story of Flashman and the Redskins picks up with the main protagonist avoiding detection by the local authorities in New Orleans, where
The working man is the tough guy.
