Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
If the third omnibus edition of Buffy the Vampire Slayer saw the collection of tightly packed stories and incredible artwork come of age then the fourth edition sees arguably Dark Horse’s finest adaptations of a television series or film mature and become everything you could ever want from a collection of artists and script writers.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
With the popularity of Buffy the Vampire Slayer assured, there really should have no question that the equally admired series of graphic novels in collected form would continue.
Volume Three of the omnibus editions though would take the wise-cracking Vampire Slayer from the Californian setting of Sunnydale catch straight up with the television series and make the Slayer part of that recognisable group ‘The Scooby Gang’ and focus on the attention of the growing friendship between Buffy Summers, Xander Harris, Cordelia Chase, the sometimes introverted, sometimes female geek fest but loyal and as brave Willow Rosenberg and her watcher Giles. It is this focus that makes Volume Three such an interesting read and makes the hard work that Dark House put in the previous two volumes even more enjoyable and darkly entertaining.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The great appeal of Buffy The Vampire Slayer was not the manner in which took on the darkness, the evil that surrounded her, the matter of the dead coming back to life and making Sunnydale a literal Hell on Earth, it was that this was a young woman with real problems, real issues that affected so many across the Western world and how she overcame them. If Joss Whedon’s heroine had been a lad, a boy slayer, it’s doubtful that the show would have been as successful, except to those whose interest in the Twilight series is more driven by rampaging hormones that plot lines.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
When Sarah Michelle Geller burst onto the television screens in 1997 as Buffy Summers, the reluctant Vampire Slayer who typified a growing confidence in women being given meaty roles, a whole generation of viewers were hooked. In the days before the genre seemed to become over saturated with young girls fighting off the attentions of vampires who wanted to kill them or romance them, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a breath of fresh air in a field that had become tired and almost mundane, so mundane that even comedy pastiches were as tired and anaemic as a Vampire at a N.H.S. transfusion run on the day when nobody is around to give a pint.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Of the three science fiction films of the 1980s in which were successfully captured in graphic novel form, perhaps the one that struck a chord and a sent a distinct chill up the spine the most was The Terminator.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
For nearly 40 years Stephen King has thrilled his readers and on many occasions has put just enough wind up them to make them see something in the shadows, something unnatural that makes the reader slightly unnerved about turning over the next page but also too riveted to put down the book, even into the small hours of the day. His latest novel, Doctor Sleep, is no exception.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Where Volume 1 of Alien Vs Predator gave the graphic novel fans a taste of what could have been after the two of the greatest film monsters of all time reared their ugly heads, Volume 2 takes it one stage further with the same artistic endeavour but with a truly landmark script bursting within its 458 pages that really gets to grips with the idea of what makes these two franchises tick.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There will be those who remember sitting and waiting with varying degrees of patience for their favourite comic book title, as they seemed to be called once upon a time, to come out and then devoured greedily with relish as their favourite hero or collection of champions led the way through 40 or so pages of agonising self-worth and the inevitable fight, perhaps to the death.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
One of the most endearing and potent symbols of England arguably stands to the east of the 21st century’s modern day London and its historic buildings, fashionable residences, iconic sporting grounds and tourist traps. The East-End characterised by the 19th century world vision of smoky-disease and crime ridden streets that even now have the sense of history haunting its streets like some macabre vengeful spectre. The Tower of London, the palace of Kings and Queens, of plots and prisoners from its inception after the Norman invasion is the subject of Norman Jones book Tower: An Epic History of the Tower of London.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is always a worry when reading a book by a poet, by someone who you conceive to have weighty matters on their head to the point that the world only really makes sense when viewed through their eyes and through whichever form of the medium takes their fancy. Arguably poetry is the single purest expression of writing and when you consider the greats, the toil they spent making each word convey the deepest meaning can put you off writing anything as you know you can never capture the spirit of someone such as Ginsberg, Hughes, Stevens, McGough or even Simon Armitage.