Quentin Tarantino has built a distinctive body of work by drawing phenomenal performances from his casts and daring to be audacious in both story and style. No two of his films are alike, and sitting down to see one for the first time still comes with a charge of anticipation. Viewers can argue over which…
Salvage By Renée Nault 256 pages/Ten Speed Press/$19.99 (sc) Class conflict has powered countless speculative stories, and Salvage uses that familiar tension to frame a near-future romance with an ecological warning beneath the surface. That setup gives Nault plenty of visual and thematic promise, but the book never develops its social divide or ecological premise…
The Hammer horror film revival was well underway by the time Dracula Has Risen from the Grave arrived in 1968. This was the fourth film starring Bram Stoker’s notorious vampire and the third with Christopher Lee wearing the fangs (he skipped the second one), and it is a mixed offering. On the one hand, screenwriter…
Keeping 007 Alive: Conversations with James Bond Continuation AuthorsBy Mark Edlitz232 Pages/Self-Published/$49 (hc), $29.99 (sc) Pop culture historian Mark Edlitz conducts good interviews, bringing passion and deep knowledge to each of his subjects. Of late, he has focused on Britain’s greatest spy, James Bond. He’s previously written The Lost Adventures of James Bond and James…
In 1958, this was as cutting-edge as it got. Ray Harryhausen took his stop-motion special effects wizardry and applied it to his first full-color film, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, recognizing that the fantasy setting was ideal for his Dynamation creations. Viewed today, the effects can appear dated and, at times, quaint, but for those…
The early 1970s were a transitional period for feature films. A new generation of filmmakers was making their presence known, alongside actors still unfamiliar to mainstream audiences. Content was evolving away from escapist fare toward more serious, provocative material. MGM, however, seemed slow to catch up. When Herb Solow, formerly of Desilu and Paramount, took…
Spider-Man: Mighty Mayhem! By Mike MaihackAbrams Fanfare/96 pagers/$12.99 After teaming up with the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and the Guardians of the Galaxy, Mike Maihack is back pairing your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man with the Throg and the Norse gods of Asgard. The Enchantress has turned the thunder god back into his frog form, and the rest of…
By Dayton Ward June 1983: It was right around the end of my sophomore year of high school when some friends and I did what we often did on a Saturday: head to the nearby Cineplex to catch a movie. We’d already done our duty as Star Wars fans and taken in multiple screenings of…
When you have as rich a history as the world of Westeros does in George R.R. Martin’s unfinished A Song of Ice and Fire saga, and you have a hit television series adapting the novels, obviously, there is room for exploitation and brand extension. HBO and HBO Max have fulfilled a desire to see more…
Growing up, I learned many things, among them that John Carradine never met scenery he couldn’t chew and that his Billy the Kid vs. Dracula is one of the all-time bad movies. It’s also fallen into the public domain, so multiple versions can be found for sale. Joining the collection is this new 50th-anniversary Blu-ray…
Iron Man: Super SmashBy Dean Hale and Douglas Holgate96 pages/Abrams Fanfare/$12.99 The team behind the entertaining Iron Man: Something Strange is back with a new graphic novel for younger readers, this time pairing Shellhead with the jade-jawed giant himself, the Hulk. In this whimsical adventure, Iron Man senses the Hulk has something against him, and…
The British Are Coming Vol. 1By Rick Atkinson, Nora Neus, and Frederico Pietrobon320 pages/10 Speed Graphics/$35 Adapting prose storytelling to a graphic novel is tricky. Sure, it’s easier to visualize colonial America than describe it in words, but you also need to ensure readers know what they’re looking at and why. In this adaptation of…
