Journey To Tomorrowland

When a movie comes out and the general public doesn’t like it, my interests are so quirky, there’s also a 50% chance I’ll LOVE it! True, the movie may indeed suck and i'll agree that it's bad,  but I find that when my co-workers all grouse about how boring and understand a film was, more than likely, it will be a flick RIGHT UP MY ALLEY!

Athena and Frank

Frank (Thomas Robinson) and Athena (Raffey Cassidy)

So I was excited to see the new George Clooney Disney flick “Tomorrowland”, but was bummed when it came out and began generating mediocre reviews. Then it occurred to me that HEY! There's a good chance that this might be one of those films that everyone pans but I end up liking!

Casey (Britt Robertson)

So I just got  finished watching it, and Oh My GOSH, it was so freaking GREAT! Terrific characters that you really like right off the bat and a storyline that keeps you guessing about where its heading-General Consensus be damned, this was JUST what I looked for in a movie! SO entertaining!

Athena and Casey

Casey and Frank (George Clooney)

As the movie ended and I sat there with a big smile on my face, totally satisfied, it faded to black, and then the words came up: “Directed By Brad Bird”. WHOAA! I’d completely forgotten he was attached to this movie! Once I saw his name, I was all like, "Man! No WONDEWR this movie hit me right in the feels- this is BRAD BIRD!" I’ve loved so many movies from Brad Bird, (Iron Giant, Incredibles) and it looks like with Tomorrowland, he’s STILL one of my favorite directors!!!

What I'm Collecting Now...

I'm still riding that rejuvenated comic-collecting high and the name of the game is still IMAGE! Yes, out of the four Monthly Titles I'm subscribing to and the four Trade Paperbacks i'm collecting, all eight of them are from the imaginative minds of Image comics! The four Monthly Titles I'm picking up are Saga, They're Not Like Us, Injection and the newly-launched "Paper Girls".

The four titles that I wait and buy when they collect and release them in trade paperbacks are The Fuse, Lazarus, Outcast, and the huge compendium series of THE WALKING DEAD, which happily JUST released Volume 3!

Paper Girls #1

If you've ever gone shopping with my friends at Best Buy, you'll know that they can spend hours just browsing the electronics, checking out the cameras, fussing with the phone accessories, etc. without ever looking up once, I, on the other hand, always know exactly what I want and purchase it right away, and so it was that I ended up in the car waiting in the Best buy parking Lot for them to finish one day, with nothing to occupy myself!
Then I remembered that the comic store Other Realms had moved out of Ward Warehouse and right into the building behind Best Buy! I ran over, knowing I could find something to read there!!!
What I was figuring on was buying some trade paperback or something, but instead, what I saw right on the new release rack was a brand-spanking new Image comics series called PAPER GIRLS, and it was written by Brian K Vaughan, no less! I immediately snatched that one up and for the next half hour or so sat in the car taking in the new adventures of four rambunctious newspaper carrier girls in the mid-eighties who have a brush with what can only be time travelers from another era...or aliens from another dimension!
WHOO, what a timely find- I would have been ahppy to read ANYTHING to kill my boredom, instead I got what has become yet another great series to subscribe to!!!

Memories of Uncanny X-Men #111

The first time I laid eyes on the Chris Claremont/John Byrne classic UNCANNY X-MEN #111 was at the house of my friends Larry and James., and this was a beautiful new mint copy, as well!!Featuring the hypnosis mutant MESMERO, this issue was key in starting a globe-trotting epic story that would conclude years later in X-Men 121! 

Oh, how I gushed about their new aquisition, wishing I had a copy of it, but at the same time lucky I was able to read their copy so I’d at least know the story- but my jealousy only grew when my friend Herbert got a copy of X-Men 111 shortly thereafter from a classmate at school, too!

To be fair, Herb’s copy was really beat-up, but hey, he got it for free from his friend, and I would have done anything to have it as well!! Luckily for me, fate would soon step in when Me, Herbert and our friend Jas went to the local swap meet that weekend at the Waialae Drive-In. I didn't expect to see anything I liked, so I didn't bring any money with me...

So when we got there, there was a guy selling a copy of X-Men 111 for three dollars, and it was in great condition, too! Desperately, I asked Herb if I could borrow the three dollars and pay him back when we got home. He looked at that perfect condition copy and then thought of his beat up copy at home, and said, I'll make a deal with you- I'LL buy this one, and then I'll sell you MY copy for 3 dollars.  

WELL, that was better than nothing, and at least I would have a copy of my own, even though it was a beat-up copy!

Next day at school I gushed  to my classmates about how I scored my very own copy of X-Men 111, and when Larry and James heard about it, James came up to me and said, “Hey, can I come over to your house and see your copy?” I was like “SURE!!!”, proud to show it off!

He came over after school and I brought it out for him, but after only glancing at it for a minute, told me I could put it away.

We later met up with Larry and he nodded to James as if to say, “Well?” to which James shook his head, “Nope.” Ehhh? what was THAT all about?

Turns out that Larry and James had misplaced their copy of X-Men 111 and, upon hearing that I somehow got my hands on a copy, came to the conclusion that I must have STOLEN theirs!

Larry had ordered James: “Go to Z’s house and see if he has our X-Men 111”. Of course, when James saw that sad , beat-up copy of mine, he knew instantly that it wasn’t their near mint one! This was one time having a poor copy saved me! 

Funny thing is, in the years that have gone by, both Lar and Herb have long since sold off all their X-Men comics and have lost interest in comic collecting in general, and I'm the ONLY ONE who still has his copy and cherishes it like the day I first got it! Man, I should have been the one to get the nice condition one!

The Walking Dead Compendium 3

The Walking Dead Compendiums (which collect a whopping 50 issues of the popular series) are released so far and few between that I always have to go back and re-read the previous compendiums to refresh my memory of what's happened before! What a massive, EPIC series!!!!

Marvel Comics in The 1970's

...and its companion book featuring the milestone Marvel Comics events of the Seventies.

Marvel Comics In The 1960's

Like the title says, this is "An Issue-by-Issue Field Guide to the Pop-Culture Phenomenon"

Alias

With the new Netflix Original series "Jessica Jones" soon to start, i thought it was high time I got around to reading ALIAS, and what better way than to plunk down some change and read the entire series in one crack? That's exactly what I wanted to do, and the ALIAS OMNIBUS was exactly what I was looking for!
Very, very good series, great characters and such an interesting and creative way of painting Jessica retroactively into Marvel history via flashbacks! I can only hope the series does this comic justice!

Cranberries' "Linger" Cover

Brenda Andrus, Mike Masse and Jeff Hall perform an absolutley mesmerizing cover of the Cranberries' beautiful song "Linger" at the Pie Pizzeria in Salt Lake City UT...

The Sensational She-Hulk #1-8, #31-50

 Hahaha, Oh my do I LOVE re-reading this one! John Byrne really had FUN doing this re-boot of the original "Savage" She Hulk comic, and it shows! Very imaginative poking fun at all the cliches of Marvel's Silver Age era and beyond!

Ivar, Timewalker, Vol.1: Making History

Super-Vixens: Monet St. Croix

I have to admit that I was a reader whom until I picked up the first issue of Peter David’s X-Factor reboot in 2005, had never heard of Monet, but after just a few issues of this mysterious, alluring raven haired mystery woman, I was quick to become a fan! Her deadpan humor and utterly narcissistic attitude had me running online to read up on just where she came from!

Well, seems like Ms. Monet St. Croix has in fact quite a bit of back-history to her, being part of the Twins, her stint as Penance, etc…too much for me to handle! Besides, the only incarnation that really mattered to me was the current version in the latest pages of X-Factor, and how I tuned in regularly to see the brash, arrogant superpowered heroine in action! Oh, Theresa Cassidy was delightful to look at (and even the grown-up version of Layla Miller, to an extent) but it was Monet’s whole package that had me as the fan I was!

More Comic Deja Vu!

More Comic Double Takes: The dramatic openings to Jim Starlin’s Warlock story in Strange Tales #178 and Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo #9 bear striking similarities!

STRANGE TALES #178:

USAGI YOJIMBO #9:

Usagi Yojimbo, Vol.8-22

Another 70's Classic: "Eyes Of Laura Mars"

Faye Dunaway as Laura Mars

 As I’ve mentioned many times here on this blog, I am a huge fan of 1970’s-era Horror/Suspense movies, and I just picked up another classic from 1978, the awesome Eyes Of Laura Mars, starring a VERY stunning Faye Dunaway- my gosh she was the epitome of 70’s chic, and in each and every scene she was knocking me out with her sexy silk-clad outfits!

The Eyes of Laura Mars tells the still-original-even-today supernatural tale of a woman photographer who is cursed with seeing through the eyes of a Serial Killer whenever he is slaying his victims. Each of the murdered people have connections to Laura- coworkers, acquaintances and models, and it all builds up to the day when she “sees”  the serial killer stalking HER!

When I saw a copy of this DVD on the shelf at a secondhand store, I excitedly grabbed it up-I have to say that it has been years and years since I’d seen this movie (and even then, only on TV) so I didn’t remember much. In fact, at the time, I mostly remembered it being the movie that the iconic disco song “Let’s All Chant” by the Michael Zager Band came from! Couldn't WAIT to check it out again!

  

  Watching it now, I was surprised to see some famous faces connected with it-for example, I had no idea that Irvin Kirshner directed this! Irwin, of course, is probably most famous among us nerds as the genius who directed “Star Wars-The Empire Strikes Back”, in fact, Laura Mars was the movie right before he began Empire! Also appearing was actor Brad Dourif, Raul Julia, and, unbelievably, a VERY young Tommy Lee Jones as the (gasp!) LOVE interest to Ms. Dunaway!! How did I not remember any of this!!!

with Raul "Gomez Addams" Julia

Brad Dourif

Above and Below: with Tommy Lee Jones

 Gotta say, The Eyes of Laura Mars still entertains today, and if the psychic twist on the murder mystery cliché isn’t enough to keep you interested, this movie is a PERFECT slice of the late 1970’s Disco era- the models, outfits, clothes, even the makeup, each shot is like taking a time trip back to those glitter garbed days of the past! Such a blast to watch again!

The Disco Era in Full Bloom!

Tommy Lee Jones and Faye Dunaway