Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10
Into every magnificent series must come a dip, a lack of form or supposed interest that makes all the other titles so far printed seem even more tantilising. In Frank Miller’s Sin City series that fall comes with the sixth in the range, Booze, Broads and Bullets.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Welcome to Lovecraft; welcome to the world of Joe Hill but whatever you find it might be better to keep it under Locke & Key.
Locke & Key: Welcome To Lovecraft was the opening graphic novel by the writer Joe Hill and top rated artist Gabriel Rodriguez and as graphic novels go it is sensational. A story of incredible depth but with the added bonus of some of the most interesting comic art to ever see the light of day that its only peers in the last twenty years would be arguably Watchmen and the Sin City series, certainly when it comes to independent graphic novels.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Aquaman may well have been the poor relation for many years in terms of superheroes from the big two mainstream makers of comic books and graphic novels but in terms of modern story-telling, the fight against injustice actually going hand in hand with environmental concerns, it really has opened many fans eyes to the possibilities that was afforded to Arthur Curry due to the huge re-boot by D.C. Comics in the New 52 series.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
We perhaps like to think we look at the periods of time that went before us with a modern, dispassionate eye. An eye that picks over the fine details of what made the people of the time the way they were, the condition in which they allowed their lives to flourish or stagnate and the system of which they featured. We are not so far removed from the days that saw the world go to war in 1914, from the rush for Empire in the 19th Century, (instead of countries to conquer, there are now conglomerates who desire to own everything that moves) or even the so-called Dark Ages and the race to collect souls in the name of religion. How will future generations evaluate us, how can they decide what we were like if all they have to go by is the mess that we leave behind? This is the fascinating question that lurks at the heart of Geoffrey Beevers’ novel The Forgotten Fields.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
There used to be a saying that you were either a Beatles fan or a Rolling Stones devotee, the same could be said of the big two comic book publishers in America, D.C. Comics and Marvel. Like the argument between The Stones and the four Liverpool musicians, there will also be a crossover who say for example find the compelling stories of Batman or Wonder Woman just as exciting as the moral guideline set out by Captain America or the incredible life of Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, just as there are those who love The Beatles but also see the appeal of Paint It Black or Sympathy for the Devil. However sympathy for D.C. Comics marine hero Aquaman has never really captured comic book fans in any kind of dramatic way.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
What would you do if you had a super power so great that you were able to help many thousands of people survive the everyday viciousness, cruelty and the malevolent? To be able to walk the streets in safety with no fear attached to their daily routine knowing that there was a hero out there looking out for them. This power is so great though that it frightens others and forces you to come clean, to reveal who you are and there by jeopardising your own safety as the criminals and the ones with evil intent come after you and those that you love. Would you, could you, sign up to act that required you to disclose your true identity?
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Angela Douglas is one of Britain’s much loved actors. Married to one of British cinema’s legendary performers, she made a mark in both theatre and films, notably perhaps the four Carry On Films she appeared in as the romantic female lead, Carry On Sreaming, Cowboy, Follow That Camel, On Up The Khyber and in films such as The Comedy Man and The Gentle Terror. Her life is one that unfortunately seen under the gaze of a British public that was under such moral sexual introspection, a hangover from the so called Victorian values that dominated society until the 1970s and the perhaps phony tides in which people judged other lives.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
The graphic novel/ film/television tie-in has had many great reasons in which to celebrate multi-media crossover in the last couple of decades. From Sin City to The Watchmen, from V For Vendetta to Buffy The Vampire Slayer, each has carried the other with the weight of heavy expectation foaming from its pages or celluloid extravagance. When it comes to the world of Marvel, arguably the heaviest hitter in the world of the comic book communities, the films have been great, the comics have been superb but the tie-ins have not been so enamouring.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
In the Robert Rodriguez 2005 film Sin City, one of the more interesting set of stories weaved together was that of Nancy Callaghan, Detective Hartigan and one of the beasts that haunts Basin City like a Japanese knotweed being cultivated by perverted and foul paedophile, the obscene Roark Junior. Sin City: That Yellow Bastard follows that story neatly from start to finish and it is arguably the best story in the entire series because of it.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It’s hard to imagine any superhero in the Marvel Universe having the same type of intrigue and fascination with Halloween as D.C. Comic’s biggest hero Batman does. Indeed across every spectrum and genre no other title perhaps lends itself more to the crazy upside world of the night than the Dark Knight. In a collection of three different one shot Halloween special stories by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, under the one title of Batman: Haunted Knight, the complicated relationship he has with the day is one that captures the imagination but also the fixation, the near fixation he has in dealing with those who bring harm to Gotham City is at near psychosis levels.