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Post by berkley on Jun 6, 2023 18:11:21 GMT -5
She was great. Such an understated delivery, perfect for that song and her style in general.
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Post by berkley on Jun 5, 2023 18:08:03 GMT -5
If you're interested in European spy comics, another one is Lady S.; a Franco-Belgian comic by Jean Van Hamme and Philippe Aymond. It is currenly being published in English by Cinebook. It has some very strong Modesty Blaise overtones (Lady S is a former refugee and thief), although she is directly employed as a spy.
I might try that one of these days but I'm a little leery about the American connections of the lead character. It's depressing that the creators of a Franco-Belgian comic felt the need to make their protagonist more glamorous or marketable or whatever they were going for with this decision.
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Post by berkley on Jun 5, 2023 11:17:00 GMT -5
The first issue of Marvel UK’s Dragon’s Claws was released on this day 35 years ago: I’m afraid I have not read it. It’s on my radar (and has been for 35 years!). I can’t find any artist credits for the covers, either. I know it was created by Simon Furman and Geoff Senior. International Hero has an entry on them: www.internationalhero.co.uk/d/dragclaw.htm
This looks more like a parody of something I've never heard of than an actual comic.
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Post by berkley on Jun 4, 2023 17:16:10 GMT -5
I always disliked Heck. I thought his superhero work lacked the dynamism of Kirby or Buscema. BUT I have reappraised this. I read his earlier work in those 50s Marvel books and found I liked him there, that he was much more suited to that type of work. The other thing is I realized that I didn't like his self-inking, It has a scratchy style I don't find appealing. I much preferred it when he was inked by others. Of course this is just personal taste and I find no fault in others liking him. As to why you might prefer those Silver Age artist more (as many of us do) they drew in a clean way that emphasized storytelling, unlike many today who overdraw things so much that you can't follow what is going on. Many of those Kirby or Ditko or Buscema books could be just looked at and the story is there without any words. (this isn't supersizing, since they were actually writing the story with their art, either coming up with it themselves or from a minimal story idea from Stan)
I wonder too if they were trained differently back then. So many superhero artists of the later generations seem to have learned their craft mainly by looking at superhero comics. I'm sure none of them were so completely restricted as to do absolutely nothing but draw superheroes but that's almost the impression you get sometimes.
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Post by berkley on Jun 4, 2023 1:19:37 GMT -5
I've read three of the choices: Avengers/Nefaria, FF 208-218, and Teen Titans 1-7. I liked each of them at the time but I'd say my favourite was definitely the Avengers one, even though I've always had problems with the Superman-worship I think is one of the basic ingredients of Shooter's story.
Of the others, the ones I'm most likely to look at are Crisis (mostly for the Perez artwork, not that interested in the story or DCU history), Kraven's Last Hunt (like Zeck's art when he's on his game and the idea of Kraven being the protagonist), and maybe Iron Man (again, mostly for the artwork; never have liked the character much).
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Post by berkley on Jun 4, 2023 1:07:20 GMT -5
I voted for the FF run. Wolfman and Byrne produce a classic Galactus story that introduces Terrax the Tamer with the Four trying to prevent dying from old age.. The battle between Galactus and the Sphinx is epic.
I remember it as a bit of an anticlimax with Galactus winning easily but it's been a lot of years so maybe I should try it again.
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Post by berkley on Jun 1, 2023 20:06:26 GMT -5
1988 is Grave of the Fireflies, even if it's an absolute stomach punch of a movie. '88 was a big year for anime making waves overseas with Akira and My Neighbor Totoro released in the same year. I had Grave of the Fireflies at #1 the last time I participated in a Best of the 80s poll, but I also had Time of the Gypsies at #3 (one of my all-time favorite movies), so 1988 has two of my top three from the decade. I love Almodovar (at least up to a point, I haven't watched a lot of his recent films), but I could never get into Woman... I should give it another shot. I'm a wrestling fan, and I like John Carpenter films, so of course I dig They Live. Errol Morris' Thin Blue Line is well worth watching. Malkovich is excellent in Dangerous Liaisons. I'm a big fan of Claude Chabrol's Story of Women, as well. There are quite a few films I can't remember watching, stuff from Bela Tarr, Aki Kaurismaki, Theo Angelopoulos, and Krzysztof Kieslowski, and films like Dead Ringers and The Vanishing that I feel like I ought to have seen. I have an uncle who was always talking about Monty Python films when I was a kid, and he was hugely into John Cleese and a Fish Called Wanda. I was more into Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Land Before Time and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen at the time.
Oh, was the Vanishing 1988? That was a good one. And I just saw My Neighbour Totoro at the cinema recently, must have missed that one too when skimming through the wiki list. Totoro would be a definite contender but I'll stick with Naked Gun as my favourite since I saw it at the time.
I've only seen 2 or 3 Almovodars, mostly from the last few years. His most recent, Parallel Mothers, was really good. I've been trying to get to some of his 1980s and 1990s stuff but not much progress made so far.
Just watched Chabrol's Le Beau Serge a month or two ago: outstanding film, though at times quite bleak, even depressing. I plan to go through his career in order, just picking out the highlights for now, not every single film, but I might try to jump ahead and see some of the late 1980s and 1990s work soon, since I'm doing other things from that era. I'll have a look for Story of Women.
I'm a huge Python fan but somehow had never seen A Fish Called Wanda until quite recently. I was all primed to love it but perhaps was expecting too much because I found it only mildly amusing. Not a bad movie by any means but not the comedy masterpiece I was hoping for.
Haven't seen Grave of the Fireflies, another one to add to the list.
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Post by berkley on Jun 1, 2023 15:37:41 GMT -5
(copied and pasted from the Classic tv thread): Any opinions on Succession, for or against? I see it's received a fair bit of attention with its final episode just having aired last week so I'm wondering if I should give it a try some time. It's certainly been well reviewed, but I've not seen it and really don't even know much about it. I do have it on the list to give it a look, but it's a ways down the line. Next up for me is season two of Perry Mason.
I've been watching so many old movies the last few months that I've fallen way behind on my current or recent tv series viewing but I'll be getting back to it later this month . I just have to decide if I should catch up on some of the series I'm already following or try something brand new.
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Post by berkley on Jun 1, 2023 15:32:07 GMT -5
It's been quite a while since I've seen The Naked Gun. I remember it being a pretty good satire but not nearly up to the quality of Police Squad (the TV show).
I don't believe I've seen it since it was first out and now I think about it I'd probably have to re-watch all three Naked Gun movies to remember which bits are from which individual installments of the series. I do remember enjoying each one of them immensely at the time but it's possible this first one was the weakest of the three. There wasn't much else from 1988 that really jumped out at me. I'm very remiss in not having seen Dead Ringers yet, since I like Cronenberg.
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Post by berkley on Jun 1, 2023 15:24:16 GMT -5
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Post by berkley on Jun 1, 2023 15:17:48 GMT -5
That DC Comics Presents issue looks pretty neat. I had enjoyed the return of OMAC as a back-up feature in Kamandi and then Warlord (the Starlin instalments, at least). I'm sure Perez did the character justice! Oh, it is indeed neat, and Perez more than did the character justice. It's pretty much non-stop action, with punch-ups and things blowing up (so, among other things, a bunch of that famous Perez wreckage debris as well).
I can't remember if I already have a copy of that issue or not but it's definitely on my list of 1980s DC comics to read, mainly for the Perez artwork, though I'm also a little curious to see what Len Wein did with OMAC.
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Post by berkley on Jun 1, 2023 15:10:54 GMT -5
(copied and pasted from the Classic tv thread):
Any opinions on Succession, for or against? I see it's received a fair bit of attention with its final episode just having aired last week so I'm wondering if I should give it a try some time.
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Post by berkley on Jun 1, 2023 15:01:13 GMT -5
The Naked Gun
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Post by berkley on May 31, 2023 17:38:09 GMT -5
just realised I put this in the wrong thread
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Post by berkley on May 30, 2023 22:03:34 GMT -5
I accept the depictions of women by Ditko and Kirby as pretty in their own style. Frank Quietly draws the ugliest women in comics. Hands down. Yeah, I think that's what it comes down to really, how you like the style of the artist in general.
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